Unlawful Act Manslaughter

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A-Levels Law (Involuntary Manslaughter) Mind Map on Unlawful Act Manslaughter, created by amy_wilkinson on 01/06/2013.
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Mind Map by amy_wilkinson, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by amy_wilkinson over 11 years ago
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Resource summary

Unlawful Act Manslaughter
  1. Unlawful act
    1. Franklin (1883)
      1. A civil wrong is not enough - there must be a criminal offence.
      2. Lamb (1967)
        1. The defendant and victim were playing with a revolver. Neither thought the gun would fire when a bullet was not opposite the barrel. D accidentally shot V, killing him.
          1. There was no unlawful act - the victim did not fear violence, so there was no assault.
        2. Khan and Khan (1998)
          1. The defendants supplied a young prostitute with heroin, knowing that she was a new user. She went into a coma, and the defendants left the flat. When they returned the next day, she was dead.
            1. The omission of not getting help was not enough for unlawful act manslaughter.
        3. Dangerous act
          1. Church (1966)
            1. "The unlawful act must be such as all sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise the act would subject the other person to at least some harm" - Edmund Davies LJ
            2. Larkin (1943)
              1. D threatened another man with a razor to frighten him. The mistress of the other man tried to intervene, but because she was drunk, fell and landed on the blade, cutting her throat and killing her.
                1. The act of threatening the man with a razor was unlawful and dangerous - some harm was likely to be caused as a result.
              2. Goodfellow (1986)
                1. D set fire to his house so the council would rehouse him. The fire spread, killing three people.
                  1. The act can be aimed at property as well as people.
                2. Dawson (1985)
                  1. The three defendants attempted to rob a petrol station. The station attendant had a heart attack as a result and died.
                    1. The risk of harm includes causing a person to suffer shock,but not mere emotional disturbance.
                3. Act must cause death
                  1. Corion-Auguiste (2004)
                    1. D threw a firework into a crowded, enclosed bus station causing people to rush for the exits. In the panic, an elderly woman hit her head and died.
                      1. D's act was a "direct and substantial" cause of the death.
                    2. Cato (1976)
                      1. D and V prepared a mix of heroin and water, which they both injected into each other.V died as a result.
                        1. "Administering a noxious substance" was the direct cause of death.
                      2. Kennedy (2007)
                        1. D prepared a syringe for V to inject himself with. V injected himself and died.
                          1. V's act of injecting himself broke the chain of causation.
                        2. Shohid (2003)
                          1. D was part of a group of men who pushed V onto a railway track. V was prevented from climbing back onto the platform by the group of men, not including D. He was killed by a train.
                            1. Even though the original act of D was not the sole cause of death, or even a main one, it was significantly serious to be the legal cause.
                        3. Mens rea for unlawful act
                          1. Newbury and Jones (1976)
                            1. Two teenage boys pushed a paving slab off of a railway bridge as a train approached. It hit a window and killed the guard.
                              1. It did not matter that D did not foresee that his act may cause harm to another or know that his act was unlawful.
                                1. D must have realised what he was doing and had the intention of doing it. The risk must have been obvious to a reasonable adult of normal intelligence, but not necessarily to D.
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