Non-fatal offences against the person: assault and battery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm (s47), malicious wounding and inflicting grievous bodily harm (s20), and wounding or causing GBH with intent (s18), with their actus reus and mens rea.

What this dot point is asking

This dot point covers the non-fatal offences against the person, which form a ladder of increasing seriousness: assault, battery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm (s47), malicious wounding / GBH (s20), and wounding or causing GBH with intent (s18). You need the actus reus and mens rea of each, with the key cases, mostly under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. WJEC tests application to a scenario, advising which offence fits the facts.

The answer

Assault and battery

Words alone can be an assault (R v Constanza, threatening letters; R v Ireland, silent telephone calls), and even the least touching can be a battery (Collins v Wilcock).

Section 47: actual bodily harm

Sections 20 and 18: wounding and grievous bodily harm

Section 20 is unlawfully and maliciously wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm. A wound requires breaking both layers of the skin (JCC v Eisenhower); grievous bodily harm means really serious harm (DPP v Smith, and R v Bollom allows the victim's age and health to be considered). The mens rea is intention or recklessness as to some harm, even minor harm (R v Mowatt). Section 18 is wounding or causing GBH with intent to do grievous bodily harm (or to resist or prevent lawful arrest). The actus reus overlaps with section 20, but section 18 requires a specific intent; recklessness will not suffice for the GBH limb. Section 18 is the most serious, carrying life imprisonment.

Examples in context

The ladder is best understood through the mens rea, which separates the rungs even where the injury is the same. Imagine a defendant who punches a victim, breaking their cheekbone. If the defendant only intended or foresaw some harm, this is section 20 (really serious harm with recklessness as to some harm, Mowatt). If the defendant punched intending to cause really serious harm, the very same injury becomes section 18, with its life maximum, because of the specific intent. Lower down, a shove that causes a bruise is a battery occasioning actual bodily harm under section 47, and under Savage the defendant need only have intended or been reckless as to the shove, not the bruise. R v Ireland and R v Constanza extend the bottom of the ladder, showing that silent calls and threatening words can amount to assault where they cause the victim to apprehend immediate force.

Try this

Q1. What is the actus reus of battery? [2 marks]

• Cue. The application of unlawful force to another (Collins v Wilcock).

Q2. What distinguishes section 18 from section 20 of the 1861 Act? [2 marks]

• Cue. Section 18 requires a specific intent to cause GBH (or to resist arrest); section 20 needs only intention or recklessness as to some harm.

Q3. Advise on the non-fatal offences arising from an attack on the victim. [20 marks]

• What the marker wants. The ladder applied in order (assault, battery, s47, s20, s18), each with actus reus and mens rea and cases, ending on the highest rung the facts support.