Murder is an offence at common law. It constitutes the unlawful killing of any living being with the intention to kill or cause grievous bodily harm. Every person of the age of discretion is presumed to be sane and accountable for their actions unless proven otherwise. Unlawful killing means killing without lawful authority, legal justification, […]
Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of another person. Voluntary manslaughter applies where all the elements of murder are present, but the crime is reduced to manslaughter by reason of provocation, impaired mental responsibility, certain circumstances, voluntary intoxication, and/or the pursuit of a suicide pact. Involuntary manslaughter is the killing of another without an intention to […]
Section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 provides that it is an offence for a person to attempt to procure a miscarriage. A person who unlawfully supplies or procures any poison or other noxious thing or any instrument or thing whatsoever, knowing that the same is intended to be unlawfully used or […]
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 […]
Whoever unlawfully or maliciously wounds or inflicts any grievous bodily harm on another person, either with or without a weapon or instrument, is guilty of an offence. Section 20 of the Offences Against the Person Act provides for the above. In this context, malice means an intention to do a particular harm or recklessness as […]
False imprisonment is a crime at common law. False imprisonment is the unlawful and total restraint of a person’s liberty followed by constraining them or compelling them to go to a particular place or by confining them at a prison or other place or by detaining them against their will in a public place. The […]