General Rule Of Omissions

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"Thou shalt not kill but needs not strive, officiously, to keep another alive." An offence cannot be committed without carrying out an action. An offence is not sitting in a room opinionating the most evil of contemplations and conjuring up the most atrocious plans. Well, if monstrous plans were constituted to be criminal offences the prisons would pack with offenders. An act is not enough to be liable for a crime; a voluntary act is also required. Lord Denning explained: ‘the requirement that it should be a voluntary act is essential ... in every criminal case. No act is punishable if it is done involuntarily.’ If the mens rea and the actus reus of a crime are not proved, the defendant is said to be acting as an automaton, a person that …show more content…
In this case two plaintiffs sold heroin to a 15-year-old teenager at their flat. This was the first time she had injected heroin and she used twice the quantity commonly used by a proficient user. She took the heroin in the company of the accused. She fell into a coma and the litigants left the flat leaving the girl alone when it was clear that she necessitated medical assistance. They revisited the flat the next day and found her deceased. Medical evidence was such that if the girl had received medical assistance she would not have died. The ‘act’ that was committed here was, providing heroine to the girl, therefore there is an actus reus and hence a crime is committed. They were imprisoned for gross negligence manslaughter and appealed opposing that a drug dealer does not owe a duty of care to beckon medical aid to his client. The verdicts were quashed due to misdirection but the court did not rule out the possibility of a duty of care being due by drug dealers. An omission is culpable in criminal law if the defendant had a duty to act but then failed to do so. A duty to act can arise in a small number of situations such as, a contractual duty, a statutory duty, a special relationship, an assumption of duty and a dangerous situation. The jury must decide whether s duty to act existed in the circumstances, and then whether that duty was breached. A contractual duty is a duty a person working within to act under a contract. All professionals such as lifeguards, police, teachers and doctors are included in this contractual duty. In the case of R v Pittwood, The defendant was employed by a railway company to man the gate at a level crossing. The defendant lifted the gate to allow a cart to pass and then went off to lunch failing to put it back down. A train later collided with a horse and cart

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