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unlawful act manslaughter aka Constructive Manslaughter/ form of…
unlawful act manslaughter aka Constructive Manslaughter/ form of Involuntary Manslaughter/ can be Civil Law (property - robbery burglary) and always Criminal Law (unlawful manslaughter)
- There must be an unlawful act
A. Originally any unlawful act would be enough for constructive manslaughter even if it was only against civil law (Fenton)
B. However, it was later established that only offences against criminal law would be enough (Franklin)
All elements 3 the unlawful act must be present. If there is no unlawful act, there can be no conviction for constructive manslaughter (Lamb)
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- CHURCH TEST The unlawful act must be dangerous
The unlawful act must be dangerous, however, dangerous is not given its ordinary and natural meaning.
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The "sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise must subject the other person to, at least, the risk of SOME harm"
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Watson - His conviction was squashed as it could not be established that the break in was the cause of the heart attack.
Watson - However, the Court of Appeal held that a sober and reasonable person would regard the act of the appellant as dangerous as they would have known of the age and frail condition of the victim.
- The unlawful dangerous act must cause death
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nsequently it need only be established that the defendant had the mens rea of the unlawful act committed. There is no requirement that the of mens rea in relation to the ensuing death.
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where the defendant commits an unlawful act resulting in the death of the victim but lacks the MR for murder but has MR for the unlawful act