Causation

Question 1

What are the two types of causation that need to be proved?

Answer 1

Factual and legal causation

Question 2

What is factual causation + the case?

Answer 2

The defendant can only be guilty if the consequence wouldn’t have happened ‘but for’ the defendant’s conduct. (R v Pagett)

Question 3

What happened in R v White?

Answer 3

D put cyanide in mother’s drink, but she had a heart attack before she could drink it. D was NOT the factual cause of her death so was not guilty.

Question 4

What is legal causation and what is the case?

Answer 4

“Must be something more than a slight or trifling link” - R v Kimsey

Question 5

What is the thin skull rule? + case

Answer 5

D must take his victim as he finds him.
(R v Blaue)

Question 6

What happened in R v Blaue?

Answer 6

D stabbed victim 4 times, when admitted to hospital she required a blood transfusion, which she rejected on religious grounds.

Question 7

What are the 3 types of intervening acts with the chain of causation?

Answer 7

-The victim’s own act
-Acts of third parties (usually medical)
-Naturally occurring events

Question 8

“In order to break the chain of causation, the intervening act must be _________ _______
of the D’s act and ___________ _____

Answer 8

sufficiently independent and sufficiently serious.

Question 9

What is “the victims own act” (intervening acts) + case

Answer 9

The victim may break the chain of causation if his reaction is “extreme”, “unforeseeable”, or something so “daft and unexpected”.
-R v Roberts

Question 10

When would medical treatment break the chain of causation? + case

Answer 10

It needs to be “so independent of D’s actions and in itself so potent in causing death”. (R v Smith)