Day 2: Serious Assaults

Question 1

Wounding with Intent (1)

Section and Elements

Answer 1

Section 188 (1)

• With intent to cause GBH
• To any person
• Wounds, maims, disfigures or causes GBH
• To any person

Question 2

Wounding with Intent (2)

Section and Elements

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Intent meaning:

Answer 3

Intent means that act must be done deliberately. More than involuntary or accidental

Question 4

GBH meaning:

Answer 4

Harm that is really serious

Question 5

Maims meaning:

Answer 5

Deprive the victim of the use of a limb or one of the senses. Needs to be some degree of permanence.

Question 6

Disfigures meaning:

Answer 6

To deform or deface; to mar or alter the figure or appearance of a person

Question 7

Doctrine of transferred malice:

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

R v Taisalika

Answer 8

Intent

The nature if the blow and the gash it produced point strongly to the presence of the necessary intent

Question 9

R v Collister

Answer 9

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

Question 10

DPP V SMITH

Answer 10

GBH

‘Bodily harm’ need no explanation and ‘grievous’ means no more and no less than ‘really serious’

Question 11

R v Waters

Answer 11

Wound

A wound is a ‘breaking of the skin evidenced by the flow of blood. May be internal or external.

Question 12

R v Rapana and Murray

Answer 12

Disfigure

Disfigure covers not only permanent damage but also temporary damage.

Question 13

R v Mcarthur

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Cameron V R

Answer 14

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

Question 15

R v Tipple

Answer 15

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”

Question 16

What must be proved when recklessness is an element in an offence??

Answer 16

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

Question 17

Injuring with intent (1)

Section and elements

Answer 17

Section 189 (1)

• With intent to cause GBH
• To any person
• Injures
• Any person

Question 18

Injures meaning:

Answer 18

Actual bodily harm

Question 19

Injuring with intent (2)

Section and Elements

Answer 19

Section 189 (2)

• With intent to injure any person or
• With reckless disregard for the safety of others
• injures
• any person

Question 20

Aggravated Wounding

Section and Elements

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Stupefies meaning:

Answer 21

to induce a state of stupor, to make stupid, groggy or insensible, to dull the senses or faculties

Question 22

Violent means in regards to aggravated wounding:

Answer 22

Not limited to physical violence and may include threats of violence, depending on circumstances

Question 23

R v Crossan

Answer 23

Incapable of resistance

Includes a powerless of will as well as physical incapacity

Question 24

R v Sturm

Answer 24

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

Question 25

R V Tihi

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

R v Wati

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Sections a, b and c of Aggravated Wounding

Answer 27

(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

Question 28

Strangulation or Suffocation

Section and Elements

Answer 28

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

Question 29

In criminal law context what are the two specific types of intention in an offence?

Answer 29

• Deliberate Act.
• Intent to produce a specific result

Question 30

In serious assault cases what additional circumstantial evidence may assist in proving the offender’s intent

Answer 30

• 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)

Question 31

Acting recklessly involves what?

Answer 31

The conscious and deliberate taking of an unjustified risk

Question 32

How to prove that someone is a person in liabilities?

Answer 32

Chris is a person and the actual victim in this matter.

Will be accepted or proved by Judicial Notice.

Question 33

R v Chan-Fook

Answer 33

“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.

Question 34

Difference between Agg Wounding and Agg Assault

Answer 34

Agg Wounding - Actual bodily harm

Agg Assault - No harm

Question 35

Rendering a person incapable of resistance by violent means:

Answer 35

The threat of violence or the use of physical violence used to render the person incapable if resistance

Question 36

Give examples of corroborative evidence you could obtain to assist in proving intent:

Answer 36

• Statement from witnesses
• CCTV
• Offender admissions
• Offender actions before, during and after
• Offenders words

Question 37

Difference between GBH and wounds?

Answer 37

Wound, maim and disfigure point towards the type of injury caused.

GBH point towards the degree or seriousness of the injury.

Question 38

Intent meaning:

Answer 38

Intent means an act or omission must be done deliberately. Must be more than involuntary or accidental.

Question 39

R v Donovan

Answer 39

‘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.