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Causation - Coggle Diagram
Causation
Legal causation
The thin-skull rule
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R v Blaue
- Young woman was stabbed by defendant. She was told to get a blood transfusion to save her life, but refused to have one as for her religion.
- She died and the defendant was convicted of her murder as he had to take the woman as he found her. It isn't her fault that she can't have a blood transfusion.
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Victims own act
The injury would have been caused by the defendant if the victim reacted in a foreseeable way and in proportion to the threat.
R v Roberts
- Girl jumped from a travelling car to escape sexual advances. The girl was injured through jumping from the car.
- The defendant was held liable for her injuries as her action to jump out of the car was foreseeable.
R v Williams
- A hitch-hiker jumped from defendants travelling car, causing head injury and death. The prosecution claimed that there had been an attempt to steal the victim's wallet therefore he jumped from the car.
- The defendant was not found liable to the death of the victim as the victims act was not in proportion to the threat.
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Chain of causation
The prosecution must prove there is an element of legal causation once they have proved there is factual causation.
For there to be criminal liability, the chain that links the act and the consequence, must remain unbroken.
The chain can be broken by:
- an act of a third party
- the victim's own act
- a natural but unpredictable event
The intervening act must be both sufficiently independent of the defendant's actions and sufficiently serious, to break the chain of causation.
Factual cause
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R v White
- The defendant put cyanide in his mothers drink intending to kill her, but she died of a heart attack before the cyanide could take effect.
- As he was not the factual cause of her death, he was not guilty of murder although he was for attempted murder
R v Pagett
- The defendant used his pregnant girlfriend as a shield while he shot at armed police officers, who shot back, killing her.
- defendant was convicted of her manslaughter as she would not have died 'but for' the defendants actions.