Day 2: Serious Assaults Flashcards
Wounding with Intent (1)
Section and Elements
Section 188 (1)
- With intent to cause GBH
- To any person
- Wounds, maims, disfigures or causes GBH
- To any person
Wounding with Intent (2)
Section and Elements
Section 188 (2)
- 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 meaning:
Intent means that act must be done deliberately. More than involuntary or accidental
GBH meaning:
Harm that is really serious
Maims meaning:
Deprive the victim of the use of a limb or one of the senses. Needs to be some degree of permanence.
Disfigures meaning:
To deform or deface; to mar or alter the figure or appearance of a person
Doctrine of transferred malice:
Not necessary that the person suffering the harm was the intended victim. He is still criminally responsible under the doctrine of transferred malice, despite the wrong target being struck.
R v Taisalika
Intent
The nature if the blow and the gash it produced point strongly to the presence of the necessary intent
R v Collister
Intent
Circumstantial evidence from which an offenders intent may be inferred can include:
- the offenders actions and words before, during and after the event
- the surrounding circumstances
- the nature of the act itself
DPP V SMITH
GBH
‘Bodily harm’ need no explanation and ‘grievous’ means no more and no less than ‘really serious’
R v Waters
Wound
A wound is a ‘breaking of the skin evidenced by the flow of blood. May be internal or external.
R v Rapana and Murray
Disfigure
Disfigure covers not only permanent damage but also temporary damage.
R v Mcarthur
Bodily Harm
‘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 be more than transitory and trifling.
Cameron V R
Recklessness
Recklessness is establish 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
R v Tipple
Recklessness
Recklessness requires that the offender know of, or have a conscious appreciation of the relevant risk, and it may be said that it requires “a deliberate decision to run the risk”
What must be proved when recklessness is an element in an offence??
1) A subjective risk.
The defendant consciously and deliberately ran a risk
2) An objective risk (based on whether a reasonable person would have known the risk)
That the risk was one that was unreasonable to take in the circumstances as they were known to the defendant
Injuring with intent (1)
Section and elements
Section 189 (1)
- With intent to cause GBH
- To any person
- Injures
- Any person
Injures meaning:
Actual bodily harm
Injuring with intent (2)
Section and Elements
Section 189 (2)
- With intent to injure any person or
- With reckless disregard for the safety of others
- injures
- any person
Aggravated Wounding
Section and Elements
Section 191 (1)
- With intent
(a) to commit or facilitate the commission of any imprisonable offence; or
(b) to avoid the detection of himself or of any other person in the commission of any imprisonable offence; or
(c) to avoid the arrest or facilitate the flight of himself or of any other person upon the commission or attempted commission of any imprisonable offence
- wounds, maims, disfigures, causes GBH to any person, stupefies, renders unconscious any person, by any violent means renders any person incapable of resistance
- any person
Stupefies meaning:
to induce a state of stupor, to make stupid, groggy or insensible, to dull the senses or faculties
Violent means in regards to aggravated wounding:
Not limited to physical violence and may include threats of violence, depending on circumstances
R v Crossan
Incapable of resistance
Includes a powerless of will as well as physical incapacity
R v Sturm
Stupefy
Stupefy means to cause an effect on the mind or nervous system of a person which really seriously interferes with that persons mental or physical ability to act in any way which might hinder an intended crime
R V Tihi
Aggravated Wounding
In addition to one of the specific intents outlined in paragraphs (a)-(c) it must be shown that the offender 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.
R v Wati
Aggravated Wounding
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 or flight he intends to avoid or facilitate
Sections a, b and c of Aggravated Wounding
(a) to commit or facilitate the commission of any imprisonable offence
PRE
(b) to avoid detection of himself or of any other person in the commission of any imprisonable offence
DURING
(c) to avoid the arrest or facilitate the flight of himself or of any other person upon the commission or attempted commission of any imprisonable offence
AFTER
Strangulation or Suffocation
Section and Elements
Section 189A
- Intentionally or Recklessly
- Impedes another persons breathing, blood circulation or both
- by doing (manually or using any aide)
(a) blocking that other persons nose, mouth or both
(b) applying pressure on, or to, that other person’s throat
In criminal law context what are the two specific types of intention in an offence?
- Deliberate Act.
- Intent to produce a specific result
In serious assault cases what additional circumstantial evidence may assist in proving the offender’s intent
- Prior threats
- Evidence of
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 (head) - The degree of resistance
or helplessness of the
victim (e.g. unconscious)
Acting recklessly involves what?
The conscious and deliberate taking of an unjustified risk
How to prove that someone is a person in liabilities?
Chris is a person and the actual victim in this matter.
Will be accepted or proved by Judicial Notice.
R v Chan-Fook
“the body of the victim includes all parts of his body, including his organs, his nervous system and his brain”
The phrase actual bodily harm is capable of including psychiatric injury.
Difference between Agg Wounding and Agg Assault
Agg Wounding - Actual bodily harm
Agg Assault - No harm
Rendering a person incapable of resistance by violent means:
The threat of violence or the use of physical violence used to render the person incapable if resistance
Give examples of corroborative evidence you could obtain to assist in proving intent:
- Statement from witnesses
- CCTV
- Offender admissions
- Offender actions before, during and after
- Offenders words
Difference between GBH and wounds?
Wound, maim and disfigure point towards the type of injury caused.
GBH point towards the degree or seriousness of the injury.
Intent meaning:
Intent means an act or omission must be done deliberately. Must be more than involuntary or accidental.
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 transitory and trifling.
