Unlawful Act Manslaughter Knowledge Summary

• Involuntary manslaughter is defined as the unlawful killing without malice aforethought.
• Unlawful Act:

  D must have committed an unlawful act which must be a criminal act (Lamb), not an omission (Lowe), or a civil wrong (tort) (Franklin).
• Objectively Dangerous: Lord Edmund Davies in R v Church: 'a reasonable and sober person would recognise some harm, albeit not serious harm.'

  1. The Reasonable person doesn't need to see a risk of death (R v JF & NE), only that the d's actions would lead to a risk of some harm.
  2. It does not matter that the D did not realise there was any risk of harm to another person (R v Bristow 2013)
• 3. There must be an obvious risk of some physical harm as the D wouldn't be able to see the risk of psychiatric harm to V. Physical harm can include internal injuries and the court will look at 'age and frailty' of the V to decide whether a reasonable person would see the risk of some harm which was internal (Dawson/Watson)

  4. Unlawful act can be aimed at property (Goodfellow)
• Causation

  1. Factual - 'but for' (White)
  2. Legal - de minimis 'more than a minor cause' (Kimsey), operating and substantial cause 'most to blame' (Smith)
  3. New Intervening Acts - v's own actions (Roberts), v's self neglect (Holland/Wallace), actions of a 3rd party (Pagett), palpably wrong medical treatment (Smith), thin skull rule (Blaue)
• Mens Rea

  D must have the relevant mens rea for the unlawful act committed (DPP v Newbury and Jones)
• *Check for transferred malice*
• Sentence:

  If the offence is established, D is convicted of involuntary manslaughter which carries a discretionary sentence.