Non-fatal offences

• Non-fatal offences

  Assault, battery, actual bodily harm (ABH) & grievous bodily harm (GBH)
• Sometimes assault & battery occur at the same time, this offence is known as COMMON ASSAULT
• Assault - Common Law

  Intentionally or recklessly causing V to apprehend immediate unlawful force
• There is no need for V to be frightened, 'apprehend' in this context means 'to be aware of'
• R v Lamb (1967)


  • D & V were friends, V dared D to pull the trigger of a gun they had just found, both were laughing as neither of them believed that the gun would fire
• No assault in Lamb as D did not cause V to apprehend force (no actus reus)
• Immediate

  Means imminent, not instantaneous
• Smith v Superintendent of Woking (1983)


  • D stood in an enclosed garden of a block of flats & looked through a bedsitting room window at V at 11 p.m.
• Gestures can amount to assault, 'immediate' doesn't mean instantaneous – it means imminent
• R v Ireland (1997)


  • D made repeated silent phone calls to 3 women who suffered psychiatric illness as a result
• Silence can amount to assault
• R v Constanza (1997)


  • D sent 2 threatening letters to V, over 800 other letters, made numerous silent phone calls, wrote offensive words on her front door, followed her & called at her house. V suffered clinical depression.
• Words (spoken & written) can amount to assault, 'immediate' means 'any time, not excluding the immediate future'
• Force

  A touch will be sufficient
• Gestures, words (spoken or written) and silence can cause an assault, they can also cancel an assault
• Tuberville v Savage (1669)


  • 'If it were not assize time, I would not take such language from you!'
• There is no assault if it obvious to the victim that D cannot or will not carry out his threat of violence
• R v Light (1857)


  • D held a sword above his wife's head & said "Were it not for the bloody policeman outside, I would split your head open"
• The D's words in R v Light did not negate, or cancel the assault as the threat was so harsh
• Battery - Common Law


  Intentionally or recklessly applying unlawful physical force
• Collins v Wilcock (1984)


  • WPC Wilcock took hold of Collins's arm to talk to/restrain her as she walked away, this was a battery as W was not trying to arrest Collins (so was unlawful)
• The 'slightest touch' is 'force' & is a battery, but the 'jostlings of everyday life' are not because they have been impliedly consented to
• R v Thomas (1985)


  • A man rubbed the hem of a skirt whilst being worn by a schoolgirl, touching clothes is the same as touching a person and can be a battery
• Rv Martin (1881)


  • A man placed an iron bar across the exit doors in a theatre, turned off the lights & shouted 'fire', many people were hurt in the panic, this was a battery inflicted indirectly
• Battery can be indirect & can be inflicted by omission
• Haystead v CC Derbyshire (2000)


  • Battery on the child when D punched a woman who then dropped the child
• DPP v Santa Bermudez (2003)


  • Battery on the PC when D omitted to tell her he had a needle in his pocket during a search, there is a duty to put right the dangerous situation D has created
• s.47 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 - Assault (or battery) occasioning actual bodily harm (ABH)


  Any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the individual
• R v Miller (1954)


  • D threw his wife to the ground 3 times
• Actus Reus of ABH

  A non-trivial injury to any part of the body, including the organs, nervous system and brain (but NOT emotions such as fear, distress or panic)
• R v Chan-Fook (1994)


  • Suspecting V of theft a shopkeeper (V) locked V in a room, V became hysterical
• R v Constanza (1997)

  • Clinical depression amounted to the actus reus of ABH
• DPP v Smith (2006)


  • Cutting hair amounted to the actus reus of ABH
• T v DPP (2003)


  • V was kicked by D & momentarily lost consciousness, this amounted to the actus reus of ABH
• 'Occasioning' means 'causing', this can be direct or indirect
• DPP v K (a minor) (2006)


  • The actus reus of ABH can be indirect
• Types of injury regarded as ABH under Joint Charging Standards

  • Broken nose
  • Minor fractures
  • Extensive or multiple bruising
  • Loss or breaking of tooth
  • Temporary loss of consciousness
  • Psychiatric injury (more than fear, distress or panic)
  • Cutting hair
• Mens rea of ABH


  D only needs to intend or see a risk of causing V to apprehend unlawful force OR to intend or see a risk of applying force
• R v Savage (1991)


  • D threw beer over another woman in a pub, the glass slipped from D's hand & V's hand was cut by the glass, D saw no risk at all of V being hurt - she only intended for her to be wet from the beer, conviction upheld
• Meaning of 'wound'

  A break in the continuity of the skin (a break on the top layer of the skin is a graze not a wound)