key cases - murder

• Definition of murder

  • The unlawful killing of a reasonable person in being and under the King's peace with malice aforethought, expressed or implied
• Attorney Generals Ref (No3 of 1994)

  
  

  Legal Principle = Harm done to foetus while in utero is not murder as not reasonable person

  • D stabbed pregnant girlfriend and wounded foetus which then led to a premature birth
  • Could not be convicted of murder if foetus is in utero
• Malcherek & Steel (1981)

  
  

  Legal Principle = Doctors were not criminally liable and the clear initial injuries were the cause of death

  • Stabbed V which caused her to suffer brain damage and then placed on a life support machine
  • No chance of condition improving
• Moloney (1985)

  
  

  Legal Principle = Foresight of consequences is not intent

  • D was drinking with V and had a competition to see who could load their gun fastest
  • D was quicker firing and killing him instantly
• Hancock and Shankland (1986)


  Legal Principle = Did the defendants foresee the consequence of their actions to cause GBH? Foresight is evidence of intention

  • Dropped a concrete block onto a taxi and killed the driver
  • If the consequence was foreseen, the more likely it was intended
• Nedrick (1986)

  
  

  Legal Principle = Virtual certainty test

  • Poured paraffin through the letterbox with the intention of scaring the woman
  • Caused the death of a child
  • Do the jury see the death as virtually certain of D's voluntary act and does the D foresee the death due to their act
• Woollin (1998)

  
  

  Legal Principle = Must find intention, not infer

  • D lost his temper while feeding his baby and threw it against the wall
• Matthews and Alleyne (2003)

  
  

  Legal Principle = Harm or death was virtually certain

  • D knew the V couldn't swim and chucked V from a bridge into a river, D then left the scene
• R v Vickers (1957)

  
  

  Legal Principle = The MR of murder is either the intention to cause death or grievous bodily harm

  • Never intended to kill the women