Serious Assaults Flashcards
S188(1), Crimes Act 1961
Wounding with intent
•With intent to cause GBH
•To any person
•Wounds OR maims OR disfigures OR causes GBH
•To any person
S188(2), Crimes Act 1961
Wounding with intent
•With intent to injure any person OR with reckless disregard for the safety of others
•Wounds OR maims OR disfigures OR causes GBH
•To any person
S189(2), Crimes Act 1961
Injures with intent
- With intent to injure anyone OR with reckless disregard for the safety of others
- Injures
- any person
S189(1), Crimes Act 1961
Injures with intent
- With intent to cause GBH
- to any person
- Injures
- any person
S191(1), Crimes Act 1961
Aggravated Wounding
- With Intent
(a) To commit OR facilitate the commission of any imprisonable offence; OR
(b) To avoid detection of himself OR of any other person in the commission of any imprisonable offence; OR
(c) To avoid the arrest OR facilitate the flight of himself or of 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.
DEFINITION: INTENT
There must be an intention:
- to commit the act, AND
- to get a specific result.
CASE LAW: INTENT
R v Collister
R v Taisalika
CASE LAW: RECKLESSNESS
Cameron v R
R v Tipple
INTENT: R v Taisalika
“The nature of the blow AND the gash which is produced point strongly to the presence of the necessary intent”
INTENT: R v Collister
Circumstantial evidence from which an offenders’ intent may be inferred can include:
- the offenders action’s and words before, during and after the event
- the surrounding circumstances
- the nature of the act itself
RECKLESSNESS: Cameron v R
Recklessness is established if:
(a) The Defendant recognized 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.
RECKLESSNESS: R v Tipple
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 that risk”.
CASE LAW: BODILY HARM
R v McArthur
R v Donovan
BODILY HARM: R v McArthur
“Bodily Harm” includes any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim. It need not be permanent but must be more than transitory and trifling.
WOUND: R v Water
A wound is a ‘breaking of the skin evidenced by the flow of blood. May be internal or external’.
CASE LAW: GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm)
DPP v Smith
R v MWAI
GBH: DPP v SMITH
‘Bodily Harm’ needs no explanation and ‘grievous’ means no more and no less than ‘really serious’.
DEFINE: PERSON
Gender neutral. Proved by CE / JN.
CASE LAW: WOUNDS
R v Waters
CASE LAW: DISFIGURES
R v Rapana and Murray
DISFIGURES: R v Rapana and Murray
Disfigures covers not only permanent damage but also temporary damage.
DEFINE: MAIMS
Mutilating, Crippling or Disabling a part of the body so as to deprive the Victim of the user of a limb or of one of the senses.
DEFINE: DISFIGURES
To ‘disfigure’ means “to deform or deface; to mar or alter the figure or appearance of a person”.
DEFINE: INJURY
To injure means to cause actual bodily harm.
CASE LAW: R v Tihi
(Aggravated Wounding)
- With intent to commit OR facilitate the commission of any imprisonable offence.
Must satisfy ‘two fold’ test for intent:
- The Defendant intended to facilitate the commission of an imprisonable offence (OR one of the other intents specified in paragraphs (a), (b) or (c)), AND
- He intended to cause the specified harm, OR was reckless as to that risk.
CASE LAW: R v Wati
(Aggravated Wounding)
- With Intent to avoid arrest or facilitate the flight of himself or of any other person upon the commission or attempted commission of any imprisonable offence.
There must be proof of the commission or attempted commission of a crime either by the person committing the crime or by the person whose arrest or flight he intends to avoid or facilitate.
DEFINE: FACILITATE
To ‘facilitate’ means to make possible or make easy / easier.
DEFINE: STUPEFIES
To ‘stupefy’ means to induce a state or stupor, to make stupid, groggy or insensible; to dull the senses or faculties.
CASE LAW: STUPEFIES
R v Sturm
STUPEFIES: R v Sturm
To ‘stupefy’ means to cause an effect on the mind or nervous system of a person which really seriously interferes with that persons mental or physical ability to act in a way which might hinder an intended crime.
DEFINE: RENDERS UNCONSCIOUS
To ‘render’ means to ‘cause to be’ or ‘cause to become’.
The offenders actions must cause the Victim to loose consciousness.
CASE LAW: R v Crossan
(Aggravated Wounding)
- by any violent means renders any person incapable of resistance.
Incapable of resistance includes a powerlessness of the will as well as a physical incapacity.
R v Crossan - the Defendant, intending to rape the Victim, presented a loaded revolver at her and threatened to shoot her unless she submitted to sexual intercourse.
ADDITIONAL CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
- prior threats
- evidence of premeditation
- the use of a weapon
- whether any weapon used was opportunistic or purposely brought
- the number of blows
- the degree of force used
- the body parts targeted by the offender (e.g the head)
- the degree of resistance or helplessness of the Victim (e.g unconscious)
