Unlawful Killings

Question 1

For a child to be given the protection of the law of homicide, they must be wholly expelled from their mother’s body and be alive.

Answer 1

Poulton

Question 2

Murder cannot be committed where unlawful injury has been deliberately inflicted to a mother carrying a child where the child is subsequently born alive and then dies as a result of earlier injuries.

Answer 2

AG Reference (No 3 of 1994): a defendant could instead be liable for constructive manslaughter.

Question 3

What is the test for factual causation?

Answer 3

But for the defendant’s conduct, would the victim’s death have occurred in the way that it did? (White)

Question 4

Acceleration of death must be ‘significant’, meaning ‘more than negligible’.

Answer 4

Chesire

Question 5

A defendant’s act need not have been the sole cause, or even the main cause, of death, but simply have contributed significantly to the result.

Answer 5

Pagett

Question 6

Intentional discontinuation of medical treatment does not prevent the person who inflicted the initial injury from being responsible for the victim’s death.

Answer 6

Malcherek

Question 7

Where a victim’s death is caused by something other than physically-inflicted injuries, such as a fright-induced heart attack, it is open to the jury to decide whether the defendant has caused the victim’s death.

Answer 7

Watson: in this case, the defendants were convicted of manslaughter because it was foreseen or foreseeable that such an outcome could occur.

Question 8

Which case involved medical treatment being palpably wrong and thus a subsequent quashing of the defendant’s initial conviction?

Answer 8

Jordan

Question 9

If at the time of death the original wound is still an operating and substantial cause of death, then the death can be said to be the result albeit that some other cause of death is also operating.

Answer 9

Smith

Question 10

Only in a case where negligent treatment was so independent of the acts of the defendant and so potent that it rendered their acts insignificant could the law consider the cause of the victim’s death to exclude the defendant’s acts.

Answer 10

Cheshire

Question 11

The principle of taking your victim as you find them.

Answer 11

Blaue

Question 12

Example of an application of the principle established in Blaue.

Answer 12

McKechnie

Question 13

What is the definition of the common law offence of murder?

Answer 13

“The unlawful killing of a reasonable creature in being under the Queen’s peace with malice aforethought” (Coke)

Question 14

Murder can only be committed by intention to kill or cause GBH.

Answer 14

Moloney

Question 15

In the case of someone suffering from alcohol dependence syndrome, diminished responsibility does not require the abnormality of mind to be the sole cause of the defendant’s acts. If impairment of responsibility was potentially partly caused by drink and partly caused by underlying abnormality, then provided the abnormality substantially impaired the defendant’s mental responsibility, the defence can be upheld.

Answer 15

Dietschmann

Question 16

A defence of diminished responsibility is not precluded by a defendant’s voluntary consumption of alcohol. If a defendant had voluntarily consumed alcohol before a fatal act, a jury should focus exclusively on the effect of the alcohol consumed as a direct result of the defendant’s illness and ignore the effect of any alcohol consumed voluntarily.

Answer 16

Wood

Question 17

Voluntary intoxication from alcohol or other substances which is uncomplicated by alcoholism or dependence cannot be relied upon for a defence of diminished responsibility.

Answer 17

Dowds

Question 18

The notion of ‘substantial impairment’ is a question for the jury: it must be ‘more than trivial or minimal’.

Answer 18

Lloyd

Question 19

‘Substantial impairment’ has been held to mean ‘important or weight’.

Answer 19

Golds

Question 20

Where sexual infidelity is part of the context of other relevant triggers, then evidence relating to it may be relevant when assessing the other possible qualifying triggers.

Answer 20

Clinton

Question 21

Defendants cannot be guilty of constructive manslaughter if there is no unlawful act.

Answer 21

Lamb

Question 22

Crimes of negligence will not suffice for constructive manslaughter.

Answer 22

Lowe

Question 23

The issue in constructive manslaughter is whether there has been an unlawful act, and there is no need for the defendant to foresee or intend the risk of frightening or harming anyone.

Answer 23

DPP v Newbury and Jones

Question 24

‘Dangerous’ means an act that carries with it some risk of harm to some person, albeit not serious harm.

Answer 24

Church

Question 25

The test for danger is entirely objective: would the sober and reasonable person think that the act was dangerous?

Answer 25

DPP v Newbury and Jones

Question 26

Knowledge given to the sober and reasonable person is that which they would have gained had they been present at the scene of the crime and watched the whole act being performed.

Answer 26

Watson

Question 27

Burglary could amount to an unlawful and dangerous act in the context of constructive manslaughter.

Answer 27

Bristow

Question 28

A very high degree of negligence is required before the offence of manslaughter by gross negligence is established.

Answer 28

Andrews v DPP

Question 29

Negligence of the accused in manslaughter by gross negligence must go beyond a mere matter of compensation between subjects and show such a disregard for life and safety of others as to amount to a crime against the State and conduct deserving punishment.

Answer 29

Bateman

Question 30

What are the five elements of the Adomako test for manslaughter by gross negligence?

Answer 30

(a) A duty of care is owed by the defendant to the victim;
(b) There is a breach of that duty of care;
(c) That was a risk that the defendant’s conduct could cause death;
(d) Evidence that the breach did cause the death of the victim
(e) A jury’s conclusion that the defendant fell so far below the standards of the reasonable person in that situation that they can be labelled as grossly negligent and deserving of criminal punishment.

Question 31

Ordinary civil law principles of negligence should apply in deciding whether or not a defendant has breached a duty of care owed to a person.

Answer 31

Adomako

Question 32

One would be liable for failing to act where there was a duty to do so in relation to the general principles concerning omissions.

Answer 32

Khan; example in Evans.

Question 33

ICR Haulage confirmed the two limitations on a company’s ability to incur liability.

Answer 33

(a) Certain offences, by their very nature, cannot be committed by a company (e.g. rape, burglary, robbery);
(b) A company cannot be convicted of any offence where the only sentence that can be imposed is ‘physical’, i.e. a term of imprisonment.

Question 34

Which case established the ‘identification principle’?

Answer 34

Tesco Supermarkets Ltd

Question 35

What does s2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974 require?

Answer 35

Employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees.

Question 36

What does Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (SI 1999/3242) require?

Answer 36

Employers to make suitable and sufficient assessment of risks.

Question 37

The penalty of disqualification of a Director can be achieved under what Act?

Answer 37

s2 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986.

Question 38

Which Act means that the most serious breaches of health and safety rules can now attract custodial sentences of up to two years?

Answer 38

The Health and Safety (Offences) Act 2008

Question 39

Which Act makes an offence committed by a body corporate also the liability of a director, manager or similar officer if the offence was committed with their consent or connivance or was attributable to their neglect?

Answer 39

s37 of the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974.

Question 40

What must a defendant do in order to commit constructive manslaughter?

Answer 40

(a) Do an unlawful act;
(b) Which is dangerous; and
(c) Which causes the victim’s death.