The court was asked whether a firearm was ‘lethal’.
Held: Lord Parker CJ stated: ‘I think that the Justices were fully entitled to give the word lethal the sense that the injury must be of a kind which may cause death. That is the ordinary meaning of the word, but it is observed that in this connection one is not considering whether a firearm is designed or intended to cause injury of a type from which death results, but rather whether it is a weapon which, however misused, may cause injury from which death may result. Section 19 is designed to prevent, amongst other things, a weapon by firing it point blank and point blank, say, at an eye or an ear, or some particularly vulnerable part; and if it is capable of causing more than trifling and trivial injury when misused, then it is a weapon of causing injury from which death may result.’
Judges:
Lord Parker CJ
Citations:
[1960] 1 WLR 1308
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Castle v Director of Public Prosecutions Admn 12-Mar-1998
Appeal by case stated from conviction of possession of firearms (air rifles) within five years of release from prison. The court was asked as to whether they were ‘lethal’
Held: The appeal failed: ‘ the Justices were entitled to reach the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 16 May 2022; Ref: scu.608655