Assault
Common assault is committed when a person intentionally or recklessly causes another person to apprehend immediate unlawful personal violence. Battery is committed when a person, by an act, intentionally or recklessly applies force to another person. Assault and battery are both offences and civil wrongs.
An assault, in the above senses, need not involve the application of force. Threatening words or actions must be enough. An omission to act would not constitute assault. The person making the threat must be able to carry it out. Assault and battery are offences at common law.
It is not assault if a person is acting in accordance with generally accepted standards of conduct.
An assault involves the direct or indirect but immediate application of force.Scratches, minor bruising, swelling, reddening of the skin, a black eye would commonly be prosecuted as assault. However, various provisions of the Offences Against the Person Act provide for more serious offences subject to greater levels of punishment.
Assault is prosecuted summarily and is subject to up to six months’ imprisonment or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale in Northern Ireland.
Section 47 of the Offences Against the Person Act creates the offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Actual bodily harm is any harm which interferes with health or comfort but not to a considerable degree. It must be more than transient or trifling. A person is presumed to cause the natural and foreseeable results of what they do.
As with other categories of assault, various defences may be available. Consent expressed or implied to physical contact is a defence. An honest belief by the defendant that consent has been or would be given may suffice.
It is not consent to fail to resist an assault. Consent obtained by fraud or duress may negate consent. Consent may be given by a child if they understand the true nature of the act.
It is not possible to consent to an assault which inflicts substantial bodily harm.
In the case of sport players, they are deemed to consent to injuries which they might reasonably be expected to suffer. However, if the players have acted outside the rules of the game and the conduct is sufficiently serious, then the offence may be constituted.
Formerly, parents had the right to use force in the course of reasonable punishment of their children. The Children’s Act in England and Wales and the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions NI Order 2006) removes this defence in relation to the more serious assaults, including wounding or causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Self-defence is a defence to assault. Where a person uses reasonable force to defend themselves from an attack or threatened attack, and the use of force is reasonable, then the defence is made out.
The offence may be charged in the case of more serious injuries such as breaking a tooth, extensive bruising, a broken nose, minor fractures, minor cuts, or psychiatric injury.
The offence is triable summarily or on indictment. It is subject to punishment of up to five years’ imprisonment on indictment or up to six months’ imprisonment and/or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum on summary conviction (seven years in Northern Ireland).