assault and battery

• ++ no definitions for battery and assault in statute, still sufficient case law to allow flexibility and sufficiently sentence defendants
• ++ battery developed through courts to include indirect acts/force (haystead) (dpp v k)
• ++ assault - immediate satisfied if victim didn't know what would do next (smith)
• -- little difference between battery and abh, big difference in sentencing (abh 5 years, battery 6 months)
• -- no measure of fear
• -- no clear statutory definition of assault and battery
• -- gap in law, must be immediate threat not tomorrow/in future
• reforms - keep sentence at 6 months
• reforms - law commission 2015 proposals to divide assault into two offences, physical and threatened assault (intentionally or recklessly)
• reforms - 1998 draft bill in home office consultation document, set out 4 main offences: clause 4 assault and battery statutory definition, not passed into act