REGIONAL REVISIONS MAY 2017

Criminal Law: Involuntary Manslaughter

Dr Laura Lammasniemi
In this lecture, we will discuss

Difference between murder and manslaughter

Unlawful act manslaughter and how it operates

Gross negligence manslaughter and how it operates

Preview of exam question on Forum

 Slide 3 Criminal Homicide

Involuntary
manslaughter Murder (killing with intent to kill
(killing without an or to cause GBH)
intent to kill)

Constructive Reckless Voluntary Manslaughter if partial

Gross negligence
manslaughter manslaughter defence of:

Loss of control: s.54, Coroners Diminished responsibility: s.2(1), Suicide pact: s.4(1), Homicide Act
and Justice Act 2009 Homicide Act 1957 1957
Common elements in criminal homicide
• Unlawful killing
• Accidental deaths excluded
• Cannot consent to death R (Nicklinson) v Ministry of Justice (2014); Nicklinson v
UK (Admissibility) (2478/15) (2015) 61 EHRR SE7
• Human victim Enoch (1833) 5 C& P 539, 172 ER 1089; Airedale NHS Trust
v Bland [1993] AC 789 HL
What is manslaughter?
• Unlawful killing without intent
• Involuntary manslaughter can be committed in three ways:
• Constructive manslaughter
• Gross negligence
• Reckless manslaughter
• Manslaughter is very broad offence and sentencing is discretionary
Broadness of manslaughter
• Manslaughter is very broad offence and sentencing is discretionary
• Includes so called one punch killer
Unlawful act or
constructive
manslaughter
Unlawful and dangerous act (constructive) manslaughter

Three elements that

need to be satisfied to
find liability:

1. There must be a basic

2. The basic crime must
crime on which the 3. The basic act must be
cause the death
manslaughter charge ‘dangerous’
(causation)
builds (‘unlawful’)
1. Unlawful act
• The unlawful act must be a crime – not a tort or moral wrong
• It should be an act, not an omission (Lowe (1973))
• The unlawful act must be complete, e.g. actus reus AND mens rea
(Lamb (1967))
• There is NO additional mens rea element for unlawful act
manslaughter, just the mens rea for the unlawful offence
2. Causation (must cause death)

CAUSAL LINK!

Unlawful
Death
act
Complexities with causation I
• Absolutely essential to find a causal link between death and the
unlawful act but at times complex:
• Drug supply cases
• Dias (2001) – supply not enough: causal chain broken by free act of taking the
drug
• Kennedy No.2 (HL) (2007) D prepared syringe for V, who died. ‘Joint
administration’? No, V’s act a free one in injecting.
• ‘law generally assumes existence of free will’
• Rogers (2003) D played part in the mechanics of injection by applying
tourniquet
Complexities with causation II : Dhaliwal
• Suicide of another
• Dhaliwal (2006): a woman killed herself after prolonged abuse by her husband
• Husband charged - and acquitted – of manslaughter
Complexities with causation II: Dhaliwal
• Could psychological abuse constitute a crime?
• Could such abuse be the cause of suicide?
• Munro and Shah (2010):
• ‘the abuser does not pull the trigger or provide the rope. The victim may even
see the act as a form of liberation…. But this does not mean that the actions of
the abuser are not a significant cause of death, [or] that … taking one’s life
[reflects] voluntary agency’.
3. Unlawful act must be dangerous
• Church (1966): there must be an
• ‘act . . . Such that all sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise
must subject the other person to, at least the risk of some harm resulting
therefrom, albeit not serious harm’.
• It is the reasonable person who would recognise the risk – not a
question of what D foresaw, so an objective test
• The risk is of some, albeit not serious, harm – so no need for there to be
a foreseeable risk of death (compare Dawson and Watson)
Unlawful and dangerous act (constructive) manslaughter

Three elements that

need to be satisfied to
find liability:

1. There must be a basic

2. The basic crime must
crime on which the 3. The basic act must be
cause the death
manslaughter charge ‘dangerous’
(causation)
builds (‘unlawful’)
Gross negligence
manslaughter
Gross negligence manslaughter

GNM as per
Adomako (1994)

(3) whether that

breach of duty 4) Breach of duty
(1) duty of care (2) Breach of duty
caused the death of grossly negligent
the victim
1. Duty of care

• Adomako (1994): ‘ordinary principles of … negligence apply’

• Examples: duty of care in Doctor/ Patient relationship (Adomako);
• But the tort law principles are reset in the criminal law context (Wacker
(2002))
2. Breach of duty of care
• How would a reasonable person have acted in the situation?
• Did D’s conduct fall below how the reasonable person would have
acted?
• Added dimension following Rose (2017): Would a reasonable person
have foreseen a serious and obvious risk of death?
• The jury applies the reasonable person test to what was foreseeable at
the time that D acted or omitted to act
3. Causation (must cause death)

CAUSAL LINK!

Breach
Death
of duty
Causation: drug cases?
• Unlike unlawful act manslaughter, D can in some circumstances be
held liable for GNM for supplying drugs – if special relation applies
(omission categories)

• See also, ‘Bestival death: Ceon Broughton manslaughter conviction

overturned’ (18 August 2020)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-53818931
R v Evans
• Rare gross negligence
manslaughter charge after drug
death
• Family history of addiction
• ‘contributing to a dangerous
situation’
4. The negligence must be gross
• Gross negligence means that it must involve a serious risk to life (Misra
(2004))
• Adomako ‘whether having regard to the risk of death involved, the
conduct … was so bad in all the circs to amount to a criminal act or
omission’
Gross negligence manslaughter

GNM as per
Adomako (1994)

(3) whether that

breach of duty 4) Breach of duty
(1) duty of care (2) Breach of duty
caused the death of grossly negligent
the victim
Exam question (2017) preview
Imran and Ed, who were both in love with the same woman, had an
argument. In the course of the argument Ed pushed Imran hard. Imran
responded by pushing Ed equally hard. Ed fell over, cutting his arm badly.
Imran tried to stop the bleeding with a handkerchief but was unable to
do so because Ed was a haemophiliac which meant that his blood would
not clot. Imran took Ed to the hospital but got stuck in traffic. By the time
he had arrived at hospital Ed had died of blood loss.
Consider Imran’s possible liability for constructive manslaughter.
Summary on unlawful act and gross negligence
manslaughter. You should be able to:

Describe Explain Begin

Describe different ways Explain the different Begin to explore the

to commit involuntary elements required to find complexities involving
manslaughter liability for unlawful act causation, in particular in
manslaughter and gross drug supply and suicide
negligence manslaughter cases
Next steps

Thank you for listening to this Next step is to engage with the
LecturePlus Forum questions on Laws VLE