Self-Defence

• Self Defence can be a defence to any crime but mostly seen in NFOAP scenarios
• Self Defence - 1st requirement 


  Force used must be necessary
• Self Defence - 1st requirement


  Hussain and another

  -> defence couldn’t be relied on because all danger from the original attack was over when force was used, and therefore unnecessary
• Self Defence - 1st requirement

  Williams

  -> the defence can still be available if the D mistakes that force is necessary

  Can be seen in s.76 Criminal Justice and Immigration act 2008
• Self Defence - 1st requirement

  Beckford

  -> confirms that the defence is available even when fatal force is used by mistake
• Self Defence - 1st requirement

  s.76(5); R v Taj

  -> HWVR, a D cannot rely on a mistaken belief caused by voluntary intoxication
• Self Defence - 2nd Element


  The force used must also be reasonable in the circumstances
• Self Defence - 2nd Element

  Palmer

  -> Lord Morris: it was not necessary for a person to “weigh to a nicety the exact measure of the necessary defensive action.”
• Self Defence - 2nd Element

  Bird

  No duty to retreat from the situation
• Self Defence - 2nd Element


  AG’s Reference (No.2 of 1983)

  D may also be able to claim the defence where pre-emptive action is taken
• Self Defence - excessive


  Clegg; Martin (Anthony)

  -> excessive use of force will mean that the defence fails
• Self Defence - householders 


  s.43 of the Crime and Courts Act 2003

  -> a householder can have a defence of self-defence as long as the force was not ‘grossly disproportionate’
• Self Defence - householders


  To be a householder case the force must be used by D whilst in, or partly in, a dwelling; D must be a trespasser; D must have believed the V to be a trespasser
• Self Defence - householders

  Denny Collins v SOS for Justice

  -> the High Court ruled that this law is not incompatible with human rights laws