R v Le Brun
A defendant who assaulted his wife and then accidentally caused her death while trying to move her or cover up the assault was guilty of manslaughter.
Facts
Mr Le Brun had an argument with his wife as they walked home late at night, and hit her on the chin, knocking her unconscious. While he was trying to drag her body away, possibly to avoid detection or to get her home, she slipped from his grasp and hit her head on the pavement, fracturing her skull, and died. He was convicted of manslaughter.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal upheld the conviction. Lord Lane CJ said that where the initial unlawful act and the act that causes death are part of the same sequence of events, the actus reus and mens rea coincide, even though they are separated in time. His later act of moving her was part of a continuing sequence of events that started with the unlawful assault, so he could not escape liability because of the interval between the two.
Related cases on mens rea
- Attorney General's Reference (No 3 of 1994) [1998] AC 245
- R v Caldwell [1982] AC 341
- R v Church [1966] 1 QB 59
- 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 Matthews and Alleyne [2003] EWCA Crim 192, [2003] 2 Cr App R 30
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