FACTUAL CAUSE

• The defendant can only be guilty if the consequence would not have happened 'but for' the defendant's conduct
• R v PAGETT (1983)

  The defendant used his pregnant girlfriend as a shield while he shot at an armed policeman. The police fired back and the girlfriend was killed. Pagett was convicted of manslaughter. She would not have died 'but for' him using her as a sheild in the shoot-out
• R v WHITE (1910) - opposite situation from pagett

  The defendant put cyanide in his mother's drink, intending to kill her. She died of a heart attack before she could drink it. The defendant was not the factual cause of her death; he was not guilty of murder, though he was guilty of attempted murder