Homicide-Related Offences

Question 1

Infanticide

Answer 1

CA61; S178(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 is guilty of infanticide.

Question 2

Infanticide - penalty

Answer 2

3 years imprisonment.

Question 3

Killing of the child must amount to culpable homicide

Answer 3

• The killing of the child must be in a manner that would amount to culpable homicide.
• It must also be proved that the mother’s mind was disturbed as a consequence of the birth of that child or another child.

Question 4

In a case of infanticide, what verdict will the jury return if they decide the mother’s mind was affected due to childbirth/lactation etc?

Answer 4

The jury will return a special verdict of acquittal on account of insanity caused by childbirth.

Question 5

Who decides on the mother’s state of mind in cases of infanticide?

Answer 5

The jury.

Question 6

S151 - Duty to provide necessaries and protect from injury

Answer 6

S151 Duty to provide necessaries and protect from injury

Every one 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 that person with necessaries; and
(b) to take reasonable steps to protect that person from injury.

Question 7

152 - Duty of parent or guardian to provide necessaries and protect from injury

Answer 7

152 - Duty of parent or guardian to provide necessaries and protect from injury

Every one 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 8

153 - Duty of employers to provide necessaries

Answer 8

153 - Duty of employers to provide necessaries

(1) Every one 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 or her life is endangered or his or her health permanently injured, by such omission.

Question 9

Duty of employers to provide necessaries - penalty

Answer 9

5 years imprisonment.

Question 10

Vulnerable adult

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Duty to protect from injury

Answer 11

Injury encompasses not only bodily harm caused directly by other persons but also harm arising from human activity and non-human sources.

Question 12

154 - Abandoning child under 6

Answer 12

154 - Abandoning child under 6

Unlawfully abandons or exposes any child under the age of 6 years.

Question 13

Abandoning child under 6 - penalty

Answer 13

7 years imprisonment

Question 14

155 - Duty of persons doing dangerous acts

Answer 14

155 - Duty of persons doing dangerous acts

Every one who undertakes (except in case 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 15

156 - Duty of persons in charge of dangerous things

Answer 15

156 - Duty of persons in charge of dangerous things

Every one who has in his or her charge or under his or her 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 a 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 16

“Anything whatever”

Answer 16

Extremely wide - It includes things such as motor vehicles, trains, animals, ships, weapons, machinery and explosives.

The term has even been held to include the machinery inside a mussel factory.

Question 17

157 - Duty to avoid omissions dangerous to life

Answer 17

157 - Duty to avoid omissions dangerous to life

Every one 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 18

Encouraging death: 163 - Killing by influence on the mind

Answer 18

163 - Killing by influence on the mind

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 a sick person.

Question 19

164 - Acceleration of death

Answer 19

164 - Acceleration of death

Every one 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 or her death while labouring under some disorder or disease arising from some other cause.

Question 20

165 - Causing death that might have been prevented

Answer 20

165 - Causing death that might have been prevented

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

Question 21

166 - Causing injury the treatment of which causes death

Answer 21

166 - Causing injury the treatment of which causes death

Every one who causes to 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 22

Preventable death: R v Blaue

Answer 22

R v Blaue

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

Question 23

According to R v Blaue what does liability depend on?

Answer 23

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

Question 24

What comment did the Court make during R v Blaue around the ‘causal connection’?

Answer 24

The Court commented; “The question for decision is what caused her death. The answer is a stab wound. The fact that the victim refused to stop this end coming about did not break the causal connection between the act and death.”

Question 25

When treatment of injury is fatal - S166

Answer 25

The person who caused the injury is liable for the injury and its consequences. The degree of that liability will rely on the mens rea element.

Question 26

Withdrawal of life support

Answer 26

R v Tarei - Life support is not “treatment” under S166. To withdraw life support does not cause death but removes the possibility of extending the person’s life through artificial means.

Question 27

What two rules arose from R v Jordan where the medical treatment caused the death of the patient rather than the actions of Jordan?

Answer 27

• 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 causal connection between the death and the felonious injury.

Question 28

Why was the conviction in R v Jordan quashed?

Answer 28

Because the treatment was so unusual that it broke the causal chain.

Question 29

What is ‘Novus acus Interviens’?

Answer 29

‘A new intervening act’ = An intervening act that breaks the chain of causation.

Question 30

S179 (a) and (b) - Incites, Counsels or Procures Suicide; Aiding and Abetting Suicide

Answer 30

CA61; S179

(a) Incites, counsels, or procures any person to 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 31

Aiding and abetting suicide - penalty

Answer 31

14 years

Question 32

180(1) - Suicide pact

Answer 32

S180(1) -

(1) Every one who in pursuance of a suicide pact kills any other person is guilty of manslaughter and not of murder, and is liable accordingly.

Question 33

180(2) - Suicide pact

Answer 33

S180(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; but he shall not be convicted of an offence against section 179 of this Act.

Question 34

Suicide pact - penalty

Answer 34

5 years

Question 35

180(3) - Suicide pact - (suicide pact defined)

Answer 35

S180(3) -

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 his own life.

Question 36

S181 - Concealing dead body of child

Answer 36

Every one 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.

Question 37

Concealing the dead body of a child - penalty

Answer 37

2 years

Question 38

General admissibility of hearsay

Answer 38

Evidence Act 2006; S18

(1) A hearsay statement is admissible in any proceeding if;
(a) The circumstances relating to the statement provide reasonable assurance that the statement is reliable; and
(b) either -
(i) the maker of the statement is unavailable as a witness; or
(ii) the judge considers that undue expense or delay would be caused if the maker of the statement were required to be a witness

Question 39

NCMVA

Circumstances in relation to a statement by a person who is not a witness, to consider under s16(1) of the Evidence Act 2006

Answer 39

• The Nature of the statement
• The Contents of the statement
• Circumstances relating to the Making of the statement
• Circumstances relating to the Veracity of the person making the statement
• Circumstances relating to the Accuracy of the observation of the person

Question 40

Under what circumstances will the Court allow hearsay evidence to be submitted?

Answer 40

If the witness is dead at the time of the hearing and reasonable assurance of the statement’s reliability can be shown.

The Court must be satisfied that both the content and the person who made it, are reliable.

Question 41

What is an example of a person aiding and abetting suicide?

Answer 41

A person giving a tetraplegic an overdose of sleeping pills on the latter person’s request.

Question 42

Difference between S179 (aiding and abetting suicide) and S180 (suicide pact) as an example

Answer 42

If Person A and Person B both self administer a high dosage of morphine and Person A dies as a result of their own actions, but Person B survives the overdose. Person B would be guilty of being a party to a death under a suicide pact and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years.

Person B cannot be convicted of an offence under s. 179 of the Crimes Act (Aiding and Abetting Suicide).

Question 43

S181 - child meaning

Answer 43

Not defined as such but is evidently intended to refer to a child of comparatively recent birth.

Question 44

Key points to deciding whether to charge under S181?

Answer 44

• The body of the child must be dead when disposed of.
• The act must be done with intent to conceal the fact of its birth.