Examples Of Non Fatal Offences

The hierarchy above shows the five main non-fatal offences against the persons. Assault and battery are the least serious offence which will be charged under S.39 Criminal Justice Act 1988. They are common law offences and also being recognized in statute law. The others are more serious offences that will be charged under S.20 and S.47 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861 (OAPA 1861).

S.20 and S.47 of OAPA 1861 are quite similar, the main difference is in respect of the result of the injury. S.20 requires serious injury or grievous bodily harm while S.47 just need to proof actual bodily harm. The uncertainty about GBH affects the notion of ABH in S.47 as some of the bodily harm are not ‘actual’, which means ‘more than trifling’.

Fagan v Metropolitan Police Commissioner defined assault as any act which intentionally or recklessly causes another person to apprehend immediate and unlawful personal violence. There must be an act that put the victim in fear. In Fagan’s case, the defendant failed to remove the car from the police officer’s foot which is called omission doesn’t constitute to assault, but there is a continuing act which then amount to battery. In Read v Coker , courts held that words amount to assault, i.e. threatening. As long as the victim apprehend immediate unlawful force and fear of the conduct, then the defendant is guilty for assault, like in Smith v Chief Superintendent of Working Police Station . The mens rea of technical assault is an intention to cause the victim to apprehend immediate unlawful force or recklessness as to whether such apprehension is caused It was held that in every offence against the person recklessness was to be given the Cunningham meaning, ‘in the sense of taking the risk of harm ensuing with foresight that it might happen’ in

It is presumed that by deciding to play the sports the victim has consented to the infliction of the kind of force normally involved in the game. For example if a player gets injured during a football match, he cannot claim unlawful battery. But, this will not be applicable if the events permit unlawful conduct or if the injuries are intentionally inflicted. As illustrated in R v Barnes , the Court of Appeal held that if there was a foul ‘quite outside what could be expected to occur in the course of a football game’ that could be a criminal offence. In 2007, a rugby player who stamped on another player’s head was convicted of unlawful wounding even it happened during the match. Despite this, activities like boxing and wrestling which involves the participants intentionally inflicting serious harm on one another, consider a lawful activity. However, if the parties agreed to solve problems by means of a fight, then it becomes