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Summary Unlawful Act Manslaughter
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Summary of Unlawful Act Manslaughter with relevant case studies
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Summary sheet - Unlawful Act ManslaughterUnlawful Act Manslaughter can be used to reduce a murder charge to Unlawful Act
Manslaughter (a form of involuntary manslaughter). Involuntary manslaughter is
unlawful killing without malice aforethought. Meaning that there is no requirement
for intention to kill or the intention to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH). Within
involuntary manslaughter there are two types. The first being “gross negligence
manslaughter” and the second being “constructive/unlawful act of Manslaughter”.
The main difference between murder and manslaughter is the sentencing as Murder
charges life in prison, however involuntary manslaughter can charge up to absolute
discharge with a criminal record to life in prison.
To prove Unlawful Act Manslaughter there is a three part criteria;
- There must have been an unlawful act
- The unlawful act must have been dangerous.
- This act must have caused the death
Also the additional information of the defendant must have had mens rea for the
unlawful act.
The first criteria to be met ‘The defendant must have committed an unlawful acting’
which means that the defendant was the one that committed the act, there wasn’t
anyone else it’s just the defendant. The can be seen in the case of R v Goodfellow
(1986) case, in order to get re-housed, the defendant set fire to his house making it
look as if it had been petrol bombed. While that happened, his wife, son and son’s
girlfriend all died from the fire. The courts held his conviction for manslaughter was
formed. Through the case of Goodfellow it is evident that this was an unlawful act
presented. To the contrary in the case of R v Lamb (1967), in this case there were two
boys who were playing with a revolver, within the revolver there were two bullets.
One of the boys pointed a gun and fired. Through the fire from the gun, it was the
course of death. The courts held that there was no unlawful act as no assault had been
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