Crime CIX – s.47 of the Offences Against Person Act (1861) VI


While the victim can be found guilty of causing or precipitating a psychiatric illness under s47 of the Offences Against Person Act (1861) see R v Burstow (1997) and R v Ireland (1998) he or she cannot be found guilty under s47 of the Offences Against Person Act (1861) for causing nervous shock for example in situations like that of Bourhill v Young (1943).

In R v Chan Fook (1994) the defendant had accused the victim of stealing his fiancé’s ring. The defendant after striking the victim several times, locked him in a second-floor room. The victim fearing that the defendant might return and hit him again, tried to escape through a window and as a result sustained injury. The defendant was charged under s47 of the Offences Against Person Act (1861) for causing him fear and panic. According to the direction given by the trail judge (first instance) to the jury, ABH or actual bodily harm includes inducing panic and hysteria. The defendant was convicted and appealed the conviction.

On appeal in was decided that panic and hysteria or inducing or, precipitating a situation that sends the victim into panic and shock, for example where the victim suffers from shock after witnessing a terrible accident, do not fall under s47 of the Offences Against Person Act.

Psychiatric illness is different from nervous shock in that the victim succumbs to a psychiatric illness after being constantly and repeatedly harassed  by the defendant whereas with nervous shock there is no harassment involved and the victim succumbs to nervous shock after witnessing  what is often a horrible and terrible accident, and it normally occurs on the spot or just after the mishap see Alcock v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire (1992) and White v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire (1998).

Copyright © 2019 by Dyarne Ward


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