R v Church
The single transaction principle applies to manslaughter, and the unlawful act must be one that a sober and reasonable person would recognise as dangerous.
Facts
Mr Church took a woman to his van for sex. She mocked him for being unable to satisfy her, and he hit her and knocked her unconscious. He tried to revive her for about half an hour, but failed and, believing that she was dead, threw her body into a river. She drowned. He was convicted of manslaughter.
Legal principle
The Court of Criminal Appeal upheld the conviction, applying the single transaction approach in Thabo Meli. Edmund Davies J said that the unlawful act must be such as 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. This became the standard test of dangerousness for unlawful act manslaughter.
Related cases on mens rea
- Attorney General's Reference (No 3 of 1994) [1998] AC 245
- R v Caldwell [1982] AC 341
- R v Cunningham [1957] 2 QB 396
- R v G [2003] UKHL 50, [2004] 1 AC 1034
- R v Hancock and Shankland [1986] AC 455
- R v Latimer (1886) 17 QBD 359
- R v Le Brun [1992] QB 61
- R v Matthews and Alleyne [2003] EWCA Crim 192, [2003] 2 Cr App R 30
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