Part 3 Homicide Related Offences

Question 1

Infanticide

Answer 1

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, 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

Who decides on the mother’s state of mind

Answer 2

• Jury decides on that state of the mother’s mind, and can return a special verdict of acquittal on account of insanity caused by childbirth
• Prosecution may file charging docs for infanticide and murder.

Question 3

Duty to Provide the Necessaries and Protect from Injury

Answer 3

s151

(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 legal duty -

(a) To provide that person with necessaries; and

(b) To take reasonable steps to protect that person from injury

Question 4

Duty of Parent and Guardian to Provide Necessaries and Protect from Injury

Answer 4

s152

(1) Everyone who is 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

Duty of Employers to Provide Necessaries

Answer 5

s153

(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

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

Question 7

Necessaries

Answer 7

• To provide the necessaries of life - includes food, cothing, housing, warmth and medical care

Question 8

Duty to Protect from Injury

Answer 8

• To take reasonable steps to protect a vulnerable person or child from bodily harm directly caused by other persons arising from human activities and non-human activities

Question 9

Abandining a Child under 6

Answer 9

s154

Everyone is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years who unlawfully abandons or exposes any child under the age of 6 years

Question 10

Duty of Persons Doing Dangerous Acts

Answer 10

s155

Everyone 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 11

Duty of Persons in Charge of Dangerous Things

Answer 11

s156

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 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 12

Anything Whatever

Answer 12

• Includes such things as motor vehicles, trains, animals, ships, weapons, machinery and explosives

Question 13

Duty to Avoid Omissions Dangerous to Life

Answer 13

s157

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

Question 14

Acceleration of Death

Answer 14

s164

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 15

Causing Death that Might have been Prevented

Answer 15

s165

Everyone who by any a​ct 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 16

Causing Injury the Treatment of which causes Death

Answer 16

s166

Everyone 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 17

Causing Injury the Treatment of which causes Death (Examples)

Answer 17

• A person wounded in a duel and died as a result of the surgical operation
• Deceased had been kicked severely but dies after a surgeon gives the deceased brandy
• Deceased under the operating table following a serious assault dies under anaesthetic

Question 18

R v Blaue (Case law - Preventable Death)

Answer 18

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

• Stabbing of a victim, victim refuses blood transfusion based on their personal belief and dies as a result of their refusal of treatment; did not break the chain of causation between stabbing and death therefore culpable of manslaughter
• Liability depends on the mens rea not on the victim’s subsequent actions.

Question 19

When Treatment of Injury is Fatal

Answer 19

Provisions for death caused - s166

• Person caused the injury is liable for the injury and its consequences
• Liability relies on the mens rea element
• Matter of fact for the jury to decide whether the defendant had inflicted a dangerous bodily injury which remained an operating cause at the time of death

Question 20

Withdrawal of Life Support

Answer 20

To withdraw life support does not cause death but removes the possibility of extending the person’s life through artifical means.

Question 21

An Injury must remain a Substantial cause of Death

Answer 21

• Death resulting from any normal treatment employed to deal with an injury caused by a criminal action 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 injury
• Novus acus Interviens: An intervening act that breaks the chain of causation

Question 22

Aiding and Abetting Suicide

Answer 22

s179

Everyone is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years who -

(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 abet any person in the commission of suicide

Question 23

Aiding and Abetting Suicide (Culpability)

Answer 23

Section 179 makes it an offence for a person (Person A) to assist another person (Person B) to commit suicide without any intention of Person A committing suicide themselves

Question 24

Suicide Pact

Answer 24

s180

(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,

(2) Where 2 or more persons enter into a suicide pact, and in purusance 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 for a term 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 two or more persons having for its object the death of them all, whether or not each is to take his 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 settled intention of dying in pursuance of the pact

Question 25

Suicide Pact (Culpability)

Answer 25

Section 180(1) makes it an offence to enter into a suicide pact and only one person dies as a result of an action by another person, the survivor will be charged with manslaughter

Section 180(2) makes it an offence for two people to enter into a suicide pact, where they are both responsible for the actions that caused one of their deaths (Person A), and where one person survives (Person B). Person B will be guilty of being a party (Aided or abetted) to s180 and not s179.

In this section there must be an intention of suicide

Question 26

Concealing Dead Body of a Child

Answer 26

s181

Everyone is liable to imprisonment for a term 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, during, or after birth

Question 27

A Child of Comparatively Recent Birth

Answer 27

• Body must be dead when disposed of. Not necessary to find or identify the body
• If child is alive when disposed of and subsequently dies then look at murder, manslaughter or in a case of a child under 10 years, infanticide

Question 28

Intent of Concealment

Answer 28

• The requirement that the act of disposal must be done with the intent of concealing the fact of birth
• It maybe known to some people that the child was birthed; however, it is the intent of the parent/s to conceal the birth from a particular individual