Loss Of Control Flashcards
What act does loss of control come under
Sections 54 - 55 coroners and justice act 2009
Definition
D’s act or omission in killing v resulted from a loss of control which had a qualifying trigger and a persons of D’s sex and age, with a normal degree ore of tolerance and self-restraint, might have acted in the same or similar way.
Three part test must be established
- There must be a loss of control
- There must se a qualifying trigger
- The objective test
Loss of control
s54(2) The loss of control need not be sudden - jury can take a delay into account.
Not in control it he has loft the ability to act with considered judgement or normal powers of reasoning (Jewell)
Delays: (ahluwalia)
Revenge: will not count (baillie)
Fear trigger
s55(3): D fears serious violence from v
It is a subjective test - as long as the fear is genuine it does not need to be reasonable.
Fear from burglars now considered (Martin)
Anger trigger
s55(4): things said or done (or both)
A) constituted circumstances of extremely grave character
B)D has a justifiable sense of being wronged
Objective test used - reasonable man felt seriously wronged
Threshold very high, defence will rarely succeed (doughtry)
Combination of triggers
s55(5): can be a combination of both triggers (sands)
Other rules
s55(6)(a-b): triggers cannot be used if is incites the violence (Johnson)
s55(6)(c): sexual infidencaty alone is not enough but could be taken into account with another trigger (Clinton)
Objective test
s54(1)(c):jury decide whether a person of the D’s sex and agei with a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint and in the D’s circumstance may have acted in the same or similar way
Age and sex an important consideration (camplin)
Circumstances can include
- Unemployment, epilepsy, depression (gregson)
- discovering infidelity (Clinton)
- sexual abuse suffered as a child (hill)
Factors that cannot be considered
- Intoxication (asmelash)
- anger issues/ bad temper (Mohammed)
