The defendant penetrated the complainant’s vagina and rectum with his hand; she suffered cuts caused by a signet ring worn by the defendant; septicaemia developed and she died. The defendant was charged with manslaughter. The judge was asked to make a ruling on whether, putting the prosecution case at its highest, the defendant should be liable to be convicted of manslaughter. It was the prosecution case that if any significant injury was a likely consequence of vigorous consensual activity and injury resulted, that would amount to an assault, although it was accepted that the act of inserting fingers or hand into the vagina or rectum for the purposes of sexual stimulation would not, if consensual, amount to an assault or any other crime.
Held: Judge J said: ‘The difficulty with this submission was that the sexual activity to which both the deceased and the defendant agreed did not involve deliberate infliction of injury or harm and but for the coincidental fact that the defendant happened to be wearing a signet ring, no injury at all would have been caused or could have been contemplated. The question of consent to injury did not, in fact, arise because neither anticipated or considered it. At the time, all they were considering was this vigorous sexual activity. Therefore, the reality was that the deceased sustained her unfortunate injuries, not when she or the defendant were consenting to injury, but as an accidental consequence of the sexual activity which was taking place with her consent. It would be contrary to principle to treat as criminal activity which would not otherwise amount to assault merely because in the course of the activity an injury occurred.’
Judges:
Judge J
Citations:
[1995] Crim LR 571
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Meachen, Regina v CACD 20-Oct-2006
The appellant appealed his conviction for anal rape. He said the incident had been consensual. He had administered a date rape drug. He said again that this had been consensual. The prosecution alleged that the injuries left were inconsistent with . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 01 February 2022; Ref: scu.245555
