What Is Malicious Wounding

For a defendant to be convicted of malicious wounding or malicious infliction of grievous bodily harm under s20 offences against the person act 1861 they must commit the Actus Reus and possess the appropriate Mens rea. The Actus Reus states that the defendants wound or infliction grievous bodily harm on the victim with or without a weapon. ‘Wounding’ means breaking all layers of the skin whereas ‘grievous bodily harm’ means really serious injury and includes both physical harm and clinically diagnosed psychiatric injury. A wounding takes place when both layers of the skin are broken and there is usually blood loss, in the case of JJC v Eisenhower, the court held that there must be ‘a break in the continuity of the skin’ to constitute a wound for the purposes of s20 and internal bleeding was sufficient. Scratched and burn will also not be considered as wounds unless the second layer of the skin is broken and nor will broken bones. …show more content…
Moreover a disease can also be GBH, in R v dica, however he defendant was knowingly suffering from HIV and infected two women through consensual sex. Dice was convicted and the court rules that Clarence should have no further relevance in cases where the defendant knows that they are suffering from HIV or some other serious sexual disease and recklessly transmit it to the unknowing victim through consensual