The defendant renewed his application for leave to apeal against his conviction for the gross negligence manslaughter of his girl friend.
Held: The appeal failed: ‘ the issue for the jury on count 2 was not based on a subjective test (what did the applicant know, believe or foresee) but rather an objective one: whether a reasonable and prudent person of the applicant’s age and experience would have foreseen a serious risk of death and, if so, whether the applicant’s conduct fell so far below the standard of care required that it was grossly negligent such that it constituted a crime. In answering that objective question, it was open to the jury to conclude on the evidence before it that the applicant’s conduct fell below the standard of care in pointing a gun and pulling the trigger when just a short distance away from Shereka. The judge distinguished ordinary negligence and said that whether this was gross negligence turned on the circumstances.’
Sir Brian Leveson P QBD, Cranston, Singh JJ
[2015] EWCA Crim 558
Bailii
England and Wales
Crime
Updated: 29 December 2021; Ref: scu.545004