Actual Bodily Harm

• Assault Occasioning Bodily Harm

  • Not a standalone offence
  • There must be an initial assault or battery which has led to harm being done
  • Could be causation issues as one thing must result in another
  • Harm can be physical or psychiatric
  • Low-medium level harm
  • MR is only the MR of the assault or battery which led to the harm, nothing else needs to be proven
• Triable Either Way offence


  S47 Offences Against the Person Act 1861
• Assault Element


  • Either an assault and/or battery
  • Same case law as usual applied to establish this
• Occasioning Element

  • Means the same as causation
  • Normal rules of causation – Factual/Legal
  • If there is a direct/physical attack then causation is immediately established
• Miller: '"Any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim"
• Psychiatric Harm


  • Can be ABH
  • Mere emotion such as panic, fear, and distress will not suffice
  • Needs to amount to a clinical condition
• Mens Rea


  • Is the mens rea for the assault or battery, nothing more
  • No mens rea needed for further harm
• Chan-Fook: "Not so trivial as to be wholly insignificant"
• Smith: "A substantial amount of hair is to be treated as part of the body"
• T v DPP: "Momentary unconsciousness"
• Physical or Psychiatric harm must be caused