ABH Essay Model Answer

• Prima facie, the defendant (state name), may be charged with Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm (referred to as ABH) which is a triable either way offence (so can be heard in the Magistrates or Crown Court) under s47 of the Offences Against the Person Act (OAPA) 1861.
• The AR for ABH is assault occasioning actual bodily harm. The term 'assault' means either an assault or battery.
• The battery must 'occasion' the ABH. 'Occasion' means the same as 'cause' and so it therefore must be established that the defendant's assault/battery caused the ABH.
• The definition of ABH was originally set out in R v Miller as 'any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the health and comfort of the victim.' However, the definition of ABH is now set out in R v Chan-Fook; actual means not so trivial as to be 'wholly insignificant'; bodily means all parts, not limited to the harm of the skin, flesh and bones of the victim. It includes organs, nervous system and brain. It can include psychiatric injury but it does not include emotions or states of mind that are not an identifiable medical condition. Finally, harm means injury.
• As ABH is a result crime, causation must be proven. Factual causation will be established using the 'but for' test and the defendant's actions caused ABH (R v White).
• Legal causation must also be proven. The defendant will be de minimis (Kimsey) if they are more than a minimal cause and the operating and substantial cause if they are the most to blame (Smith).
• Check for new intervening acts:

  1. V's own actions - reasonable, foreseeable, not daft = no break (Roberts)
  2. V's self neglect - chooses not to go hospital, goes against hospital advice (Holland), commits suicide (Wallace) = no break
  3. Actions of a 3rd party - reasonable, foreseeable = no break (Pagett)
  4. Palpably wrong medical treatment - palpably wrong if it so independent from the defendant's actions (break = Jordan) (no break = Smith)
  5. Thin skull rule - take victim as they find them (Blaue)
• The MR of ABH is that of either the assault or battery and can therefore be of intention (Mohan/Savage) or recklessness (Cunningham/Roberts).
• On that basis, the defendant has/has not the AR and MR of s.47 ABH and would be guilty subject to any defence. If convicted, he could face up to a maximum of 5 years in prison.