Unlawful Act Manslaughter

• Definition: D commits an unlawful/dangerous act that causes V’s death, but they did not have the MR for murder
• 1. D commits an unlawful act

  • this must be a crime and positive act - Lowe
• 2. Unlawful act must be dangerous

  • this is an objective test, would a sober and reasonable man see the risk of harm? - Church
  • unlawful act does not have to be aimed at V, it can be aimed at another person - Larkin
  • unlawful act can be aimed at property - Goodfellow
• 3. The unlawful act caused the death of D

  • CIF: but for D’s acts, would V have suffered the consequences - White
  • CIL: morally responsible, more than a minimal cause, accelerated the death - Pagett
  • NAI: must be no intervening acts to break the chain of causation
  • Eggshell conditions - Blaue
• 4. D must have the mens rea for the unlawful act

  • Newbury and Jones - Reasonable man must foresee risk of some harm to some other person but not necessarily harm which results
  • Goodfellow - Requires a positive act