Serious Assaults

Question 1

What are the elements of ‘Wounding with Intent” section 188 (1)?

Answer 1

• with intent to cause GBH
• to any person
• wounds OR maims OR disfigures OR causes GBH
• to any person

Question 2

What are the elements of ‘Wounding with Intent” section 188 (2)?

Answer 2

• with intent to injure any person OR with reckless disregard for safety of others
• wounds OR maims OR disfigures OR causes GBH
• to any person

Question 3

What are the elements of ‘Injuring with Intent” section 189 (1)?

Answer 3

• with intent to cause GBH
• to any person
• injures
• any person

Question 4

What are the elements of ‘Injuring with Intent” section 189 (2)?

Answer 4

• with intent to injure any person OR with reckless disregard for safety of others
• injures
• any person

Question 5

What are the elements of “Aggravated Wounding” section 191 (1)?

Answer 5

• with intent;
• to commit or facilitate the commission of any imprisonable offence; OR
• to avoid detection of himself or of any other person in the commission of any imprisonable offence; OR
• to avoid arrest or facilitate the flight of himself or any other person upon the commission or attempted commission of any imprisonable offence
• wounds OR maims OR disfigures OR causes GBH to any person OR stupefies OR renders unconscious any person OR by any violent means renders any person incapable of resistance

Question 6

What are the elements of “Strangulation or Suffocation”, section 189A?

Answer 6

-intentionally or recklessly impedes another persons normal breathing, blood circulation, or both, by doing all or any of the following;

• blocking that other person’s nose, mouth, or both:
• applying pressure on, or to, that other person’s throat, neck or both

Question 7

What are the two specific types of intention?

Answer 7

There must be an intention:

• to commit the act, and
• to get a specific result

Question 8

Circumstantial evidence from which an offender’s intent may be inferred can include:

Answer 8

• offender’s actions and words before, during and after the event
• surrounding circumstances
• nature of the act itself

Question 9

What is R v Taisalika?

Answer 9

The nature of the blow and the gash which it produced point strongly to the presence of the necessary intent.

Question 10

Acting “recklessly” involves:

Answer 10

the conscious and deliberate taking of an unjustified risk

Question 11

What is Cameron v R?

Answer 11

Recklessness is established if:

a) the defendant recognised that there was a real possibility that:
- (i) his or her actions would bring about the proscribed result; and/or
- (ii) that the proscribed circumstances existed; and

(b) having regard to that risk those actions were unreasonable

Question 12

What is R v Tipple?

Answer 12

Recklessness requires that the offender know of, or have a conscious appreciation of the relevant risk, and it may be said that it requires “a deliberate decision to run the risk”.

Question 13

What is DPP v Smith?

Answer 13

Bodily harm needs no explanation and ‘grievous’ means no more and no less than ‘really serious’.

Question 14

What is R v Waters?

Answer 14

A wound is the breaking of the skin evidenced by the flow of blood. May be external or internal.

Question 15

What constitutes a maim?

Answer 15

There needs to be some degree of permanence.

Question 16

To ‘disfigure’ means to?

Answer 16

deform or deface

Question 17

What is R v Rapana and Murray?

Answer 17

Disfigure covers not only permanent damage but also temporary damage.

Question 18

What is R v Donovan?

Answer 18

Bodily harm includes any hurt or injury calculate to interfere with the health or comfort of victim, it need not be permanent, but must, no doubt, be more than merely transitory and trifling.

Question 19

What is the “Doctrine of transferred malice”?

Answer 19

• It’s not necessary that the person suffering the harm was the intended victim.
• where harm intended for one person is accidentally inflicted on another, he is still criminally responsible, under the Doctrine of transferred malice, despite the wrong target being struck.

Question 20

What is R v Tihi?

Answer 20

• it must be shown that the offender meant to cause the specified harm or
• foresaw that the actions undertaken by him were likely to expose others to the risk of suffering it

Question 21

What is R v Sturm?

Answer 21

Under section 191(1) it is not necessary for the prosecution to prove the intended crime was actually subsequently committed.

Question 22

What is R v Wati?

Answer 22

• there must be proof of the commission or
• attempted commission of a crime by the person committing the assault or
• by the person whose arrest or flight he intends to avoid or facilitate

Question 23

To ‘stupefy’ means:

Answer 23

• to induce a state of stupor
• to make stupid, groggy or insensible;
• to dull the senses or faculties

Question 24

To ‘render’ means:

Answer 24

• cause to be OR causes to become
• to render a person unconscious, the offenders actions must cause the victim to lose consciousness

Question 25

The term ‘violent means’ includes:

Answer 25

• the application of force that physically incapacitates a person
• such as tying the victims hands and feet
• or inflicting debilitating injuries

Question 26

What is R v Crossan?

Answer 26

Incapable of resistance includes a powerlessness of the will as well as a physical incapacity.