Notes

s.47 Actual Bodily Harm
The definition of s.47 Actual Bodily Harm is as assault or battery which causes actual bodily harm, with the intention to cause the victim to fear unlawful force, or to subject unlawful force, or to be subjectively reckless as to whether the victim fears or is subjected to unlawful force’ (OCR Criminal Law for A2, Chapter 9 page 120).

The actus reus of s.47 is that it is necessary to prove that harm was actually caused to the body through an assault or battery. Actual bodily harm is ‘any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the comfort of the victim’ (OCR Criminal Law for A2, Chapter 9, page 120). An actus reus can be anything from loss of consciousness, bruising, grazes and scratches all count as actual bodily harm. Even if the victim loses consciousness for a short amount of time it can still count as actual bodily harm. In one case it was established that cutting off a substantial amount of hair could count as actual bodily harm.
The mens rea for s.47 is basically the same as it is for assault or battery. The defendant must intend or be subjectively reckless as to whether the victim fears or is subjected to unlawful force (OCR Criminal Law for A2, Chapter 9, page 121). However, in s.47 the defendant doesn’t have to intend to be reckless for actual bodily harm to be caused.

· s.20 Malicious Wounding
The definition for s.20 malicious wounding is ‘whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously wound or inflict any grievous bodily harm upon any other person, either with or without a weapon or instrument, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable… to imprisonment for not more than five years’ (OCR Criminal Law for A2, Chapter 9, page 122). This definition was developed through the s.20 OAPA 1861.

The maximum prison sentence for s.20 malicious wounding is five years which is the same length of time for s.47, in spite of s.20 being a more serious crime. The actus reus of s.20 is wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm. For the ‘wound’ part of the actus reus there must be a sufficient break or cut to the skin, if the bleeding was inside the body and hadn’t caused a break in the skin then that cannot be classed as a wound. The cut to the skin must penetrate the whole skin, a scratch to the surface is not believed to be a wound. For the ‘inflicting grievous bodily harm’ part means that it needs to be shown that the defendant’s actions have caused grievous bodily harm to occur, grievous bodily harm means to cause really serious harm.

The mens rea s.20 is to intend to commit the crime and cause some injury to the victim, or being reckless as to some harm. The prosecution for the victim has to prove that the defendant intended to cause some harm to the victim or that he was reckless in his behaviour as to whether the victim suffered any harm. The court does require that there is a wound, however, the defendant does not have to foresee the seriousness of the injury.

· s.18 Grievous Bodily Harm.
The definition of s.18 is ‘whosoever shall unlawfully and maliciously by any means whatsoever wound or cause any grievous bodily harm to any person, with intent to do some grievous bodily harm to any person, or with intent to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of any person, shall be guilty of… an offence’ (OCR Criminal Law, Chapter 9, page 124). This certain offence is under the s.18 OAPA 1861 act, this act covers a wide range of offences. S.18 is a lot more serious than s.20, s.20 maximum prison sentence is five years where as the maximum sentence for s.18 is life imprisonment. Furthermore, s.20 is a triable either way offence whereas s.18 is an indictable crime which has to be heard at the crown court.

The actus reus of s.18 can be two things causing a wound or causing grievous bodily harm. The meanings of wounding and grievous bodily harm mean the same as they do in an s.20 crime. However, the word inflict is changed to cause, though it is only required to show that the defendant was the actual cause of the injuries.

S.18 is a specific intent offence, which means that the defendant has to be found to have intended to, do some grievous bodily harm or resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of any person (OCR Criminal Law, Chapter 9, page 125). This is the mens rea for s.18. Unlike s.20 an intention to wound cannot be used as mens rea for s.18. Furthermore, the defendant has to intend to cause grievous bodily harm, not do it recklessl