Non-fatal offences against the person: assault, battery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and malicious wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm under sections 47, 20 and 18.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to define the five non-fatal offences in order of seriousness, state the actus reus and mens rea of each, and apply them to a scenario, identifying the most appropriate charge. These are heavily examined in problem questions.

Assault and battery

Words alone can be an assault (R v Ireland), and even silent phone calls or a conditional threat may suffice. Force in battery can be the slightest touch (Collins v Wilcock) and may be applied indirectly (Haystead v DPP) or by omission where a duty exists (DPP v Santana-Bermudez).

Section 47 ABH

Sections 20 and 18

• Section 20 is maliciously wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm. A wound is a break in both layers of the skin (JCC v Eisenhower); GBH means really serious harm (DPP v Smith, R v Saunders). The mens rea is intention or recklessness as to causing some harm, not serious harm (R v Mowatt, R v Parmenter). It is triable either way and carries the same maximum as section 47 (five years).
• Section 18 is wounding or causing GBH with intent. The actus reus is the same as section 20, but the mens rea is specific intent to cause GBH (or intent to resist or prevent lawful arrest, with at least recklessness as to harm). It is the most serious non-fatal offence, indictable only, carrying a maximum of life imprisonment.

The offences also differ in their maximum sentences, which signals their relative seriousness: common assault and battery carry six months, section 47 ABH and section 20 GBH both carry five years (a frequent criticism, since section 20 is the more serious conduct yet shares a tariff with section 47), and section 18 carries life. Note too that psychiatric injury can found a charge: a recognised psychiatric condition counts as bodily harm for sections 47 and 20 (R v Ireland, R v Burstow), though mere fear or distress does not. The word "inflict" in section 20 no longer requires a technical assault, so GBH caused indirectly, for example by silent or threatening phone calls, can fall within the section.

How these offences are examined

Non-fatal offences reward a disciplined ladder approach: name every offence the facts could support, then justify the most appropriate charge by reference to the level of harm and the mens rea. The recurring trap is to assume the harm dictates the offence and forget that section 47 carries the lowest mens rea while section 18 is the only specific-intent offence on the ladder.