2. Causation

• D’s act or omission must have caused V’s death
• Factual causation is proven using the But For test as in R v Pagett
• Legal causation is proven using the operative and substantial test as in R v Smith where D must be a significant cause.
• The chain of causation can be broken by new intervening acts if they are unreasonsable and unforeseeable.
• Intervening acts:

  1. Acts of a third party
  2. Acts of the victim
  3. Acts of God
• Acts of a third party


  R v Pagett
• Acts of the victim

  1. R v Williams (did break chain)
  2. R v Roberts (did not break chain)
• Acts of God


  Lightning, gust of wind, hurricane, etc.
• Acts of third party medics will break the chain if they’re unreasonable, unforeseeable AND palpably wrong.
• Hidden vulnerabilities will not break the chain of causation. This is known as the Thin Skull Rule as in R v Blaue.