Gross Neg Manslaughter

Question 1

Example

Answer 1

R v Edwards

A couple allowed their daughter to play on a railway bridge. Girl was hit by a train, D’s we’re guilty of gross neg manslaughter

Question 2

Test

Answer 2

Gross beg is the basis for liability

R v Bateman - test was stated was does the conduct of the accused show such disregard for the life and safety of others as to amount to a crime

R v Andrews - for criminal law there has to be a very high degree of negligence before the crime is established

Question 3

Leading case

Answer 3

R v adomako - anaesthetist who failed to notice oxygen tube had become disconnected

Evidence was given that a competent anaesthetist should have noticed the disconnection in seconds

Question 4

R v adomako established elements needed to prove that gross neg manslaughter

Answer 4

1. D must have owed a duty of care to V
2. D must have breached that duty
3. The breach must have involved a risk of death
4. The breach must have caused the death and
5. The breach must have involved conduct that was so gross that it should amount to a crime

Question 5

1. Duty of care

Answer 5

Established duties include doctors and patients, employers and employees etc.

R v Evans - d gave heroin to v who self injected and overdosed, mother put v to bed hoping she would recover but she died in the night.

Held that d had been under a duty to take reasonable steps to help v. The prosecution was based solely on her negligent omission to summon medical help

Question 6

2. Breach of duty

Answer 6

D must reach the standard of the reasonable man/doctor/driver etc

Question 7

3. Risk of death

Answer 7

Breach of duty must have involved a risk of death. If the risk was merely of some injury that would not be fatal, gross neg mans would not apply.

R v Singh- was a risk of death through carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of poor boiler maintenance

Lewin v CPS there was no risk of death when a drunken person was left asleep in a car by a friend

Question 8

4. The breach must have caused the death

Answer 8

Usual rules of causation must apply, factual and legal

Question 9

5. Grossness of the negligence

Answer 9

Jury must consider if the conduct of the defendant was so bad in all the circumstances as to amount to a criminal act or omission

Question 10

Mens rea

Answer 10

D will not have intended to kill or cause serious harm. D’s behaviour is judged by the standards of the reasonable man. However the jury will be more likely to convict a d who has been reckless

The defendants were reckless in r v stone and Robinson