Crime CLXVIII-Criminal Damage VIII
List
of Cases for Criminal Damage
In
R v Cunningham (1957), the appellant ripped a gas meter from a wall in an
attempt to steal money that was deposited in a coin box attached to the meter
and as a result gas seeped through fissures in the wall and escaped to the
neighboring property where Mrs. Wade (Sarah) was sleeping.
“The
appellant was convicted upon an indictment framed under s 23 of the Offences
against the person Act (1861) which charged that he unlawfully and maliciously
caused to be taken by Sarah Wade a certain noxious thing, namely, coal gas, so
as thereby to endanger the life of the said Sarah Wade”.
In
any statutory definition of a crime, malice must be taken not in the old vague
sense of wickedness in general but as requiring either
(1)
An actual intention to do the particular kind of harm that in fact was
done;
or
(2)
Recklessness as to whether such harm should occur or not. It is neither limited
to nor does it indeed require any ill will towards the person injured.
Copyright
© 2019 by Dyarne Ward
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