week 5

Non- Fatal Offences against the Person

Assault
- Common law offence but charged under s39 criminal justice act 1988
- Summary only offence
- Defined in Fagan (1969) and Venna (1976)
- A person is guilty of an assault if he intentionally or recklessly causes another person to apprehend the
application to his body of immediate unlawful force

Elements of Assault
- Actus Reus
- Causing the victim to apprehend the immediate application of unlawful personal force
- Mens Rea
- Intention or recklessness as to the apprehension of force

Actus Reus
- Can be committed by words alone - Ireland [1997]
- The most important factor is whether the victim apprehended the violence - constanza [1997]
- The force needs to be an immediate threat to the victim, which is subjective
- Circumstances are important - tuberville v Savage (1669)
- The meaning of the word immediate has been interpreted widely - at some time not excluding the
immediate future - constanza

Battery
- Common law offence but charged under s39 criminal justice act 1988
- Summary only offence
- Defined in savage [1992] and parmenter [1992]
- A person is guilty of batter if he intentionally or recklessly applies unlawful force to the body of another
person

Elements of battery
- Actus Reus
- Application of unlawful personal force to another
- Mens Rea
- Intention or recklessness as to the apprehension of force
- A battery often includes an assault, but is not always the case

Actus Reus - Application of Force
- Application of force - the word force is to be given its everyday meaning - even a mere touching can
amount to force - Cole v Turner (1704)
- E.g; throwing water on someone could amount to force (Pursell v Horn)
- The application of force also be committed indirectly;
Fagan v Metropolitan Police Commissioner (1969)
DPP v K [1990]
Haystead v CC of derbyshire [2000]
- A battery can be committed by an omission as well as a positive act if they have created a dangerous
situation (general legal duty)
DPP v K
DPP v Santana Bermudez [2003]

, Actus Reus - unlawful force and consent
- Force, or a threat of force, cannot be an assault or battery it it is lawful
- To be lawful, there needs to be a justification of the force;
Consent
Generally acceptable force in everyday life
Self defence, defence of another or property
Force occurred during a lawful arrest
There is a statutory use of force
Necessity
- It is for the prosecution to demonstrate that the force used was unlawful - this does not amount to a
defence

Mens Rea - assault and battery
Assault
- Intention to cause another to apprehend immediate unlawful personal force
- Or
- Recklessness as to such a apprehension
Battery
- Intention to apply unlawful force to another
- Or
- Recklessness as to such an application

Mens Rea
- Intention - direct or indirect
- Reckless - Apply R v G [2003]
- In case law, hostility has been equated to unlawfulness
- Collins v Wilcock [1984]
- Re F [1990]

Assault occasioning actual bodily harm
- S47 offence against the person act 1861
- Whosoever shall be convicted upon an indictment of any assault occasioning actual bodily harm shall
be liable …. To be kept in penal servitude
- Triable either way of offence
- This definition is not particularly helpful so we need to turn to case law to determine how this has been
interpreted

^ elements
Actus rea
- Assault
- Occasioning (causing)
- Actual bodily harm
Mens rea
- The same as assault and battery

Actus reus;
- Bodily harm - ‘has its ordinary meaning and includes any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the
health or comfort of the victim’ Donovan [1934]
- Court also said that harm did not need to be permanent
- But must be ‘more than transient and trifling’
- Harm is synonymous with injury - Chan Fook [1994]
- Actual means that it cannot be trivial and insignificant
- Can include psychiatric injury - Chan Fook , Ireland
- Also includes temporary unconsciousness - T v DPP [2003]