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Fatal Offences Against the Person

Voluntary manslaughter

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 1

Overview

Recall questions on loss of control and diminished responsibility and on what each partial defence requires.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

What three components must be satisfied for loss of control?

Process

What four elements must the defendant establish for diminished responsibility?

Numbers

Which statute and section govern diminished responsibility?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What is voluntary manslaughter?

    Model answer

    A killing that satisfies the actus reus and mens rea of murder but is reduced to manslaughter because a partial defence, loss of control or diminished responsibility, succeeds.

  2. 2

    Can sexual infidelity by itself amount to a qualifying trigger?

    Model answer

    No. It is excluded as a trigger by s55(6)(c), though it may be taken into account as part of the wider context (R v Clinton 2012).

  3. 3

    Which statute governs the partial defence of loss of control?

    Model answer

    Sections 54 and 55 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.

  4. 4

    What three components must be satisfied for loss of control?

    Model answer

    (1) The defendant lost self-control; (2) the loss had a qualifying trigger; and (3) a person of the defendant's sex and age with a normal degree of tolerance and self-restraint might have reacted in the same or a similar way (s54(1)).

  5. 5

    Must the loss of self-control be sudden?

    Model answer

    No. Section 54(2) provides that the loss of self-control need not be sudden.

  6. 6

    What are the two qualifying triggers for loss of control?

    Model answer

    The fear trigger, a fear of serious violence from the victim against the defendant or another (s55(3)); and the anger trigger, things done or said amounting to circumstances of an extremely grave character giving the defendant a justifiable sense of being seriously wronged (s55(4)).

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