Unlawful Act Manslaughter

• The defendant committed an unlawful, dangerous act which causes the death of the victim and the defendant has the necessary mens rea for the unlawful act.
• Four elements:

  1. Act must be unlawful
  2. Unlawful act must be considered dangerous
  3. Act must cause the death
  4. Must have the mens rea for said unlawful act
• Lamb: Must be able to prove a criminal act.
• Lowe: An omission is not enough
• If there is a civil offence, then gross negligence manslaughter should be considered.
• To find something "dangerous", a "sober and reasonable" person must foresee "some harm".

  Church
• Mitchell: It was foreseeable that a reasonable person that some injury would occur.
• Some assaults are dangerous by nature.

  Larkin
• To find if there's a cause of death, use causation.

  Kennedy
• The unlawful and dangerous act need not be the sole cause of death so long as it was not trivial.

  Shohid

  Carey
• You need to show the mens rea for the initial unlawful act.