Involuntary Manslaughter (UAM & GNM)

Question 1

Lowe

Answer 1

Unlawful act must be a postive act; an omission is not sufficient

Question 2

Lamb

Answer 2

Unlawful act must be a crime

Question 3

Larkin

Answer 3

ANY CRIME can form the basis of assault;

Assault

Question 4

Goodfellow

Answer 4

ANY CRIME can form the basis of assault;

Arson

Question 5

Newbury & Jones

Answer 5

ANY CRIME can form the basis of assault;

Criminal Damage

Question 6

Mitchell

Answer 6

Unlawful Act need not be aimed at V

Question 7

Church

Answer 7

UA must be ‘dangerous’ ; objective test

An unlawful act is dangerous if the sober and reasonable man would recognise that D’s act subjects another to the risk of some harm

Question 8

Dawson

Answer 8

This could be shock, but not just fear or upset

Dangerous test

Question 9

Larkin, JM & SM

Answer 9

D does not need to realise the risk of harm;

or of a specific type of harm

Question 10

Watson

Answer 10

D guilty of UAM as reasonable man would be aware of risk of harm to V, a very old frail main, so burglary was dangerous

Question 11

Dawson

Answer 11

Reasonable man in D’s position would not be aware of risk of harm as would not know of V’s heart condition

Question 12

Bristow, Dunn & Delay

Answer 12

Burglaring house posed risk of some harm as possible someone may try and prevent burglars escaping

Question 13

White

Answer 13

But for D’s unlawful act, V would not have died

Question 14

Corion-Auguiste

Answer 14

D’s unlawful act must be a ‘substantial’ cause of V’s death

Question 15

Shohid

Answer 15

D’s unlawful act need not be the sole cause of death

Question 16

AG’s Ref 4 of 1980

Answer 16

Can be a series of unlawful acts; if so there is no need to establish which was the actual cause of death

Question 17

Cato

Answer 17

If D injects V with drugs and causes death, then he is liable for UAM;

Question 18

Kennedy

Answer 18

where D supplies drugs to V but V voluntarily injects themselves, V has broken te chain of causation and D is not guilty of UAM

Question 19

Newbury and Jones

Answer 19

D must have the mens rea for the unlawful act; D need not know the act is unlawful or dangerous

D does not require any additional mens rea; D does not even need to appreciate the risk of some physical harm as the ‘dangerous’ test is objective.

Question 20

Lord McKay in Adomako

Answer 20

The neighbourhood principle from Donoghue v Stevenson must be satisfied;

D owes a duty of care to anyone closely and directly affected by their act or omission

Question 21

Singh, Litchfield, Stone & Dobinson, Wacker

Answer 21

Breach of Duty can be an act or omission

Court considers what D was expected to do and whether they failed to do it or do it to a poor standard.

D is judged against the standard of the reasonable man doing the same activity as him.

If D is a trainee/learner, this is not taken into account.

Question 22

Adomako

Answer 22

Gross means ‘so bad in all the circumstances as to amount in the jury’s judgement to a criminal act or omission’

Question 23

Singh

Answer 23

‘The reasonably prudent person would have foreseen a serious and obvious risk not merely of injury or even serious injury but of death’

Question 24

Misra & Srivastava

Answer 24

Confirmed there must be a clear and obvious risk of death.

Here, doctors did not notice signs of blood poisoning

Question 25

White

Answer 25

But for Ds breach of duty, V would not have died

Question 26

Smith

Answer 26

D’s breach of duty contributed to V’s death in a more than minimal way

Question 27

Chesire, Roberts, Blaue

Answer 27

Chain must not be broken by intervening act; and thin skull rule applies as normal

Question 28

GNM

Answer 28

D owes a duty of care and breaches it in a negligent way, causing V’s death.

a. Duty of Care
b. Breach of Duty
c. Gross Negligence
d. Risk of Death
e. Causation

Question 29

UAM

Answer 29

D commits an unlawful act which is dangerous and causes death.

a. Unlawful Act
b. UA must be ‘dangerous’
c. Causation