Duress by Threats

• To raise the defence, the D must have been forced to commit a crime because he has been threatened with death or serious injury.
• The defence must be based on threats to kill or do serious bodily harm (R v Valderama Vega), the jury are entitled to look at the cumulative effects of all the threats.
• R v Velderrama Vega

  The defence must be based on threats to kill or do serious bodily harm.
• The threat must be specifically related to the crime that has been committed (Cole).
• Cole


  The threat must be specifically related to the crime that has been committed.
• The test for duress is the Graham Test.
• This consists of two questions -

  Question 1 asks: Was the D compelled to act as he did because he reasonably believed he had a good cause to fear serious injury or death (a subjective test)?

  Question 2 asks: Objective test. Would a sober person of reasonable firmness, sharing the characteristics of the accused have responded in the same way?
• Duress test question 1 -

  Was the D compelled to act as he did because he reasonably believed he had a good cause to fear serious injury or death? (subjective test).
• Duress test question 2 -

  Objective test. Would a sober person of reasonable firmness, sharing the characteristics of the accused have responded in the same way?
• In relevance to the second part of the duress test, relevant characteristics can be considered (Bowen).
• The mere fact that D was more pliable, vulnerable, timid or susceptible to threats than a normal person does not have an impact on the second part of the test however, if the D is in a category of persons whom the jury might think less able to resist pressure than people not within that category this can be considered.
• The threat must be 'immediate' or 'imminent' in the sense that it is operating upon the accused at the time that the crime was committed.
• Also the D can only use duress if the D is placed in a situation where there is no safe avenue of escape (Gill) (Hudson and Taylor).
• The defence of duress is excluded where D voluntarily associates with others who are engaged in criminal activity (Hasan) and he foresaw or ought reasonably to have foreseen the risk of being subjected to any compulsion by threats of violence.
• Hasan

  Defence of duress is excluded where D voluntarily associates with others who are engaged in criminal activity.
• Duress is available for all crimes except for murder (Howe) or attempted murder (Gotts).
• Howe

  Duress is unavailable for murder
• Gotts

  Duress is unavailable for attempted murder.
• If D is voluntarily intoxicated and mistakenly believes he has been threatened he cannot use duress as a defence however if the duress is irrelevant to the intoxication the D can still use the defence.