Homicide-Related Offences

Question 1

Crimes Act 1961

Section 178 - Infanticide

Answer 1

Section 178 - Infanticide
(1) Where a woman causes the death of any child of hers under the age of 10 years in a manner that amounts to culpable homicide, and where at the time of the offence the balance of her mind was disturbed, by reason of her not having fully recovered from the effect of giving birth to that or any other child, or by reason of the effect of lactation, or by reason of any disorder consequent upon childbirth or lactation, to such an extent that she should not be held fully responsible, she is guilty of infanticide, and not of murder or manslaughter, and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years.

Question 2

Mothers state of mind

Answer 2

In charges of infanticide, it is for the jury to decide on the mother’s state of mind.

If a woman is charged with murder or manslaughter the jury may return a verdict of acquittal on account of insanity caused by childbirth.
It may be prudent to file both murder and infanticide and it is up to the jury to decide on the mother’s state of mind.

Question 3

Crimes Act 1961
Section 151
Duty to provide the necessaries and protect from injury

Answer 3

(1) Everyone who has actual care or charge of a person who is a vulnerable adult and who is unable to provide himself or herself with necessaries is under a legal duty -
(a) to provide the person with necessaries; and
(b) to take reasonable steps to protect that person from injury

Question 4

Crimes Act 1961
Section 152
Duty of parent or guardian to provide necessaries and protect from injury

Answer 4

(1) Everyone who is a parent or is a person in place of a parent, who has actual care or charge of a child under the age of 18 years is under a legal duty -
(a) to provide that child with necessaries; and
(b) to take reasonable steps to protect that child from injury

Question 5

Crimes Act 1961
Section 153
Duty of employers to provide necessaries

Answer 5

(1) Everyone who as employer has contracted to provide necessary food, clothing or lodging for any servant or apprentice under the age of 16 years is under a legal duty to provide the same, and is criminally responsible for omitting without lawful excuse to perform such duty if the death of that servant or apprentice is caused, or if his life is endangered or his health permanently injured, by such omission

Question 6

Vulnerable Adult

Answer 6

Means a person unable, by reason of detention, age, sickness, mental impairment or any other cause, to withdraw himself or herself from the care or charge of another person.

Vulnerability may be short-lived or temporary. Whether an adult is vulnerable is a matter for objective determination and should not depend on that person’s subjective perception.

Question 7

Crimes Act 1961
Section 154
- Abandoning a child under 6

Answer 7

Everyone is liable not exceeding 7 years who unlawfully abandons or exposes any child under the age of 6 years

Question 8

Crimes Act 1961
Section 155
- Duty of person doing dangerous acts

Answer 8

155 - Duty of Persons Doing Dangerous Acts
Everyone who undertakes (except in cases of necessity) to administer surgical or medical treatment, or to do any other lawful act the doing of which is or may be dangerous to life, is under a legal duty to have and to use reasonable knowledge, skill, and care in doing any such act, and is criminally responsible for the consequences of omitting without lawful excuse to discharge that duty

Question 9

Crimes Act 1961
Section 156
Duty of persons in charge of dangerous things

Answer 9

Everyone who has in his charge or under his control anything whatever, whether animate or inanimate, or who erects, makes, operates or maintains anything whatever, which, in the absence of precaution or care may endanger human life, is under legal duty to take reasonable precautions against and to use reasonable care to avoid such danger, and is criminally responsible for the consequences of omitting without lawful excuse to discharge that duty.

Question 10

Crimes Act 1961
Section 157
Duty to avoid omissions dangerous to life

Answer 10

Everyone who undertakes to do any act the omission to do which is or may be dangerous to life is under a legal duty to do that act, and is criminally responsible for the consequences of omitting without lawful excuse to discharge that duty.

Question 11

Crimes Act 1961
Section 163
Killing by influence on the mind

Answer 11

No one is criminally responsible for the killing of another by any influence on the mind alone, except by wilfully frightening a child under the age of 16 years or a sick person, nor for the killing of another by any disorder or disease arising from such influence, except by wilfully frightening any such child as aforesaid or sick person

Question 12

Crimes Act 1961
Section 164
Acceleration of Death

Answer 12

Everyone who by any act or omission causes the death of another person kills that person, although the effect of the bodily injury caused to that person was merely to hasten his death while labouring under some disorder or disease arising from some other cause.

Question 13

Crimes Act 1961
Section 165
- Causing Death that might have been prevented

Answer 13

Everyone who by any act or omission causes a death of another person kills that person, although death from that cause might have been prevented by resorting to proper means.

Question 14

Crimes Act 1961
Section 166
- Causing injury the treatment of which causes death

Answer 14

Everyone who causes another person any bodily injury, in itself of a dangerous nature, from which death results, kills that person, although the immediate cause of death be treatment, proper or improper, applied in good faith.

Question 15

R v Blaue

Answer 15

‘Those who use violence must take their victims as they find them.’

Liability depends on the mens rea not on the victim’s subsequent actions -s165

Question 16

An injury must remain a substantial cause of the death

Answer 16

R v Jordan - Court of appeal stated two rules:

• death resulting from any normal treatment employed to deal with a felonious injury may be regarded as caused by the injury;
• in other circumstances, it is a question of fact to establish a casual connection between the death and the felonious injury

Novus acus interviens {Latin: a new intervening act} An intervening act that breaks the chain of causation.

Question 17

Crimes Act 1961
Section 179
- Aiding and abetting suicide

Answer 17

Everyone is liable to imprisonment not exceeding 14 years who –

(a) Incites, counsels, or procures any person too commit suicide, if that person commits or attempts to commit suicide in consequence thereof; or
(b) Aids or abets any person in the commission of suicide.

Question 18

Crimes Act 1961
Section 180
- Suicide Pact

Answer 18

(1) Everyone who in pursuance of a suicide pact kills any other person is guilty of manslaughter and not of murder, and is liable accordingly.
(2) Where 2 or more persons enter into a suicide pact, and in pursuance of it one or more of them kills himself, any survivor is guilty of being a party to a death under a suicide pact contrary to this subsection and is liable to imprisonment not exceeding 5 years; but he shall not be convicted of an offence against section 179 of this Act.
(3) For the purposes of this section the term suicide pact means a common agreement between 2 or more persons having for its object the death of all of them, whether or not each is to take their own life; but nothing done by a person who enters into a suicide pact shall be treated as done by him in pursuance of the pact unless it is done while he has the settled intention of dying in pursuance of the pact.

Question 19

Crimes Act 1961
Section 181
- Concealing dead body of child

Answer 19

Everyone is liable to imprisonment not exceeding 2 years who disposes of the dead body of any child in any manner with intent to conceal the fact of its birth, whether the child died before, or during, or after birth.