Loss of Control- Voluntary Manslaughter

• Loss of Control


  • A partial defence to murder
  • Coroners and Justice Act 2009
• Definition

  S.54(1)(a)

  "their acts and omissions in doing or being party to their killing resulted in a loss of control" (R v Jewell)
• Qualifying Trigger


  S.54(1)(b)

  "The loss of control must have a qualifying trigger"

  (R v Martin)
• S.55(3)


  D had a fear of serious violence from V against D or against another person. (subjective test)(R v Ward)
• S.55(4)


  There was something said or done which where of an extremely grave character and it caused D to have a justifiable sense of being seriously wronged. (Objective test)

  • Doughty (1986)
  • Zebedee (2012)
• Exclusions

  S.55(6)(a)- D's fear of violence is disregarded if D has incited the thing said or done as an excuse to use violence

  S.55(6)(B)- D's sense of being seriously wronged is not justifiable if he incited it

  S.55(6)(c)- If the trigger for loss of control is sexual infidelity
• Objective element of the Defence 


  S.54(1)(C)

  "A person of their sex and age, with a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint and in their circumstances, might have reacted in the same way or in a similar way"