Wounding with Intent to Cause GBH Flashcards
Section and Penalty
Sec 188(1), Crimes Act 1961
14 years imp
Ingredients
1) With intent to cause GBH
2) To Anyone
3) Wounds, Maims, Disfigures OR Causes GBH
4) To any person
Intent
Firstly there must be an intention to commit the act.
Secondly an intention to get a specific result.
R v Taisalika
The nature of the blow and the gash which it produced on the complainant’s head would point strongly to the presence of the necessary intent.
GBH
Grievous bodily harm can be defined simply as “harm that is really serious”
DPP v Smith
Bodily harm needs no explanation and grievous means no more and no less than really serious.
Person
Gender neutral. Proven by judicial notice or circumstantial evidence.
R v Waters
Wound
A breaking in the skin would would be commonly regarded as a characteristic of a wound. The breaking of the skin will be normally evidenced by a flow of blood and in its occurrence at the site of a blow or impact, the wound will more often than not will be external. But there are those cases where the bleeding which evidences the separation of tissues may be internal.
Maims
Will involve mutilating, crippling or disabling part of the body so victim is deprived of the use of a limb or one of the senses.
Needs to be some degree of permanence.
Disfigures
To disfigure means to deform or deface, to mar or alter the figure or appearance of a person.
Any Person
Gender neutral. Proven by judicial notice or circumstantial evidence.
It is not necessary that the person suffering the harm iis the intended victim
R v Rapana and Murray
The word disfigure covers not only permanent damage but also temporary damage.
Not limited to immediate harm
S188 not limited to immediate harmful consequences of the offender’s actions, such as external assault or injury from a blow of some kind - HIV given to victims
Doctrine of Transferred Malice
It is not necessary that the person suffering the harm was the intended Victim. Where the defendant mistakes the identity of the person injured, or 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.
Wounding with intent to cause GBH liability
With intent to cause GBH -Intent meaning - R v Taisalika - GBH meaning - DPP v Smith To anyone - Person meaning Wounds - R v Waters OR Maims - Maims meaning OR Disfigures - Disfigures meaning - R v Rapana and Murray OR Causes GBH - GBH meaning - DPP v Smith Any person - Person meaning
