CIB 010 - Violence Offences Flashcards
Name the offence and the elements of s188(1) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Wounding with intent.
(14 Years Imprisonment).
Elements:
- With intent to cause GBH
- To any one
- Wounds, maims, disfigures, or causes GBH
- To any person
Name the offence and the elements of s188(2) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Wounding with intent.
Elements:
- With intent to injure any person, or with reckless disregard for the safety of others
- Wounds, maims, disfigures, or causes GBH
- To any person
Intent vs. Outcome.
Explain the difference between subsection (1) & subsection (2) of s188 Crimes Act 1961.
Under s188, both subsections (1) and (2) both relate to actions that result in wounding, maiming, disfiguring, or causing GBH to the victim. So the outcome is the same.
The distinction between the two subsections is the offender’s intent.
Explain ‘Intent’.
In a criminal law context there are two specific types of intention in an offence.
Firstly there must be an intention to commit the act and secondly, an intention to get a specific result.
Discuss what was held in R v Collister in relation to “Intent”.
Circumstantial evidence from which an offender’s intent can be inferred can include:
- The offender’s actions and words, before, during and after the event,
- The surrounding circumstances,
- The nature of the act itself.
What are additional circumstantial evidence that may assist in proving intent?
- Prior threats
- Evidence if premeditation
- The use of a weapon
- Whether any weapon used was opportunistic or purposely brought
- The number of blows
- The degree of force used
- The body parts targeted by the offender (e.g., the head)
- The degree of resistance or helplessness of the victim (e.g., unconscious).
Discuss what was held in R v Taisilika in relation to “Intent”.
The nature of the blow and the gash which it produced on the complainant’s head would point strongly to the presence of the necessary intent.
Define ‘Grievous bodily harm’ and discuss what was held in DPP v Smith.
‘Grievous bodily harm’ can be defined simply as “harm that is really serious”.
DPP v Smith.
‘Bodily harm’ needs no explanation and ‘grievous’ means no more and no less than “really serious”
What is the difference between ‘wounding’ and ‘grievous bodily harm’?
The terms ‘wounds’, ‘maims’, and ‘disfigures’ refer to the type of injury caused.
‘Grievous’ refer to the degree of harm, rather than to the nature of it or how it was caused.
Discuss what was held in R v Waters in relation to “Wound”.
A wound involves the breaking of the skin evidenced by the flow of blood, either externally or internally.
Discuss ‘Psychiatric Injury’.
“Bodily harm” may include psychiatric injury but does not include mere emotions such as fear, distress, panic, or a hysterical or nervous condition.
It may be necessary that the ‘injury’ should amount to identifiable clinical condition.
Expert evidence will be required before an issue of psychiatric injury arises.
Define ‘maiming’.
Maiming will involve mitigating, crippling, or disabling a part of a body so as to deprive the victim of the use of a limb or one of the senses.
To constitute maiming, there must be some form of permanence.
Define ‘disfigurement’ and discuss what was held in R v Rapana and Murray.
“Disfigure” means to deform or deface; to mar or alter the figure or appearance of a person”.
R v Rapana and Murray
The word ‘disfigures’ covers “not only permanent damage but also temporary damage”.
Discuss the ‘Doctrine of transferred malice’.
It is not necessary that the person suffering the harm was the intended victim.
Where the defendant mistakes the identity of the person injured, or where the harm intended for one person is accidentally inflicted on another, he is still criminally responsible.
Define ‘Injure’ and discuss what was held in R v Donovan.
s2 Crimes Act 1961
To injure means to cause actual bodily harm.
R v Donovan
‘Bodily harm’ … includes any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim … it need not be permanent, but must, no doubt, be more than merely transitory or trifling.
Define ‘recklessly’ and discuss what was held in Cameron v R.
Acting ‘recklessly’ involves consciously and deliberately taking an unjustifiable risk.
Cameron v R.
Recklessness is established if:
(a) The defendant recognised that there was a real possibility that:
(i) his or her actions would bring about the proscribed result; and/or
(ii) that the proscribed circumstances existed; and
(b) having regard to that risk those actions were unreasonable.
Name the offence and elements of s189(1) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Injuring with intent.
Elements:
- With intent to cause GBH
- To any one
- Injures
- Any person
Name the offence and elements for s189(2) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Injuring with intent.
Elements:
- With intent to injure any one, or with reckless disregard for the safety of others
- Injures
- Any person
Name the offence and elements for s191(1) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Aggravated Wounding or Injury.
Elements:
- With intent —
(a) To commit or facilitate the COAIO; or
(b) To avoid detection of himself or herself or of any other person in the COAIO; or
(c) To avoid arrest or facilitate the flight of himself or of any other person upon the commission or attempted COAIO —
- Wounds, maims, disfigures, or causes GBH to any person, or stupefies or renders unconscious any person, or by any violent means renders any person incapable of resistance.
Discuss what was held in R v Tihi (Two-fold test for intent).
In addition to one of the specific intents outlined in paragraphs (a), (b), or (c) of s191(1) Crimes Act 1961, “it must be shown that the offenders either meant to cause the specified harm, or foresaw that the actions undertaken by him were likely to expose others to the risk of suffering it”.
Discuss what was held in R v Wati in relation to “Facilitate flight”.
There must be proof of the commission or attempted commission of a crime either by the person committing the assault or by the person whose arrest of flight he intends to avoid or facilitate.
Discuss what was held in R v Sturm in relation to “stupefy”.
‘Stupefy’ means to ‘cause an effect on the mind or nervous system of a person, which really seriously interferes with that person’s mental or physical ability to act in any way which might hinder an intended crime’.
Explain ‘Renders unconscious’.
“Renders” means to “cause to be” or “cause to become”.
To render a person ‘unconscious’, the offender’s actions must cause the victim to lose consciousness.
Explain ‘violent means’.
“Violent means” is not limited to physical violence and may include threats of violence, depending on the circumstances.
What was held in R v Crossan in relation to ‘incapable of resistance’.
Incapable of resistance includes the powerlessness of the will as well as a physical incapacity.
Elements
- With intent to cause GBH
- To any one
- Wounds, maims, disfigures, or causes GBH
- To any person
Name the offence, section and act.
Wounding with intent.
Section 188(1) Crimes Act 1961
Elements:
- With intent to cause GBH
- To any one
- Injures
- Any person
Name the offence, section and act.
Injuring with intent
s189(1) Crimes Act 1961
Name the offence and elements for s192(1) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Aggravated Assault (3 Years Imprisonment).
Elements:
- Assaults
- Any other person
- With intent —
(a) To commit or facilitate the COAIO.
(b) To avoid detection of himself or herself or of any other person in the COAIO.
(c) To avoid arrest or facilitate the flight of himself or of any other person upon the COAIO.
*The offender must assault the victim with intent.
*Required to prove offender intended, at the time of the assault, (a), (b), or (c).
Name the offence and elements for s192(2) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Aggravated Assault (3 Years Imprisonment).
Elements:
- Assaults
- Any constable, or any person acting in aid of any constable, or any person in the lawful execution of any process
- With intent
- To obstruct the person so assaulted in the execution of his duty.
Name the offence and elements for s198(1) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Discharging firearm or doing doing dangerous act with intent.
(14 Years Imprisonment).
Elements:
- With intent to do GBH
(a) discharges any firearm, air gun, or other similar weapon at any person; or
(b) sends or delivers to any person, or puts in any place, any explosive or injurious substance or device; or
(c) sets fire to any property.
Discuss what was held in R v Pekepo in relation to “Intent under s198”.
A reckless discharge of a firearm in the general direction of a passer-by who happens to be hit is not sufficient proof. An intention to shoot that person must be established.
Define ‘air gun’.
s2 Crimes Act 1961
(a) any air rifle; and
(b) any air pistol; and
(c) any weapon from which, by the use of gas or compressed air (and not by force of explosive), any shot, bullet, missile, or other projectile can be discharged.
Define ‘firearm’.
s2 Crimes Act 1961.
Firearm means anything from which any shot, bullet, missile, or other projectile can be discharged by force of explosive.
Define ‘explosive’.
s2 Crimes Act 1961.
Any substance or mixture or combination of substances which in its normal state is capable of decomposition at such rate as to result in an explosion or of producing a pyrotechnic effect.
Define ‘injurious substance or device’.
The term “injurious substance or device” covers a range of things capable of causing harm to a person; for example, a letter containing anthrax powder that is mailed to a political target.
Define ‘property’.
s2 Crimes Act 1961.
Property includes any real and personal property, any estate or interest in any real or personal property, money, electricity, and any debt, and any thing in action, and any other right or interest.
Name the offence and elements for s198A(1) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Using any firearm against law enforcement officer.
(14 Years Imprisonment).
Elements:
- Uses any firearm in any manner whatever
- Against any constable, traffics officer, or any prison officer
- Acting in the course of his or her duty
- Knowing that, or being reckless whether or not that person is a member of the police, or a traffics officer, or a prison officer so acting.
Name the offence and elements for s198A(2) Crimes Act 1961.
Offence:
Using any firearm against law enforcement officer.
(10 Years Imprisonment).
Elements:
- Uses any firearm in any manner whatever
- With intent to resist the lawful arrest or detention of himself or herself or of any other person.
Define ‘Uses in any manner whatever’.
“In any manner whatever” widens the definition to include a range of acts that stop short of actually shooting at an officer.
Although possession of a firearm alone does not in itself constitute ‘use’, handling or manipulating the firearm in a manner that conveys an implied threat may suffice.
Discuss what was held in R v Swain in relation to “Uses in any manner whatever”.
To deliberately or purposely remove a sawn-off shotgun from a bag after being confronted by or called upon by police constable amounts to a use of that firearm within the meaning of s198A Crimes Act 1961.
