R v Dear [1996] Crim LR 595 is an English criminal law

English criminal law

English criminal law refers to the body of law in the jurisdiction of England and Wales which deals with crimes and their consequences. Criminal acts are considered offences against the whole of a community...

 case, dealing with homicide

Homicide

Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...

 and causation

Causation (law)

Causation is the "causal relationship between conduct and result". That is to say that causation provides a means of connecting conduct with a resulting effect, typically an injury. In criminal law, it is defined as the actus reus from which the specific injury or other effect arose and is...

. The court ruled that even if a victim aggravates his wounds sufficiently to cause otherwise avoidable death, the chain of causation is not broken.

Facts

The defendant had stabbed the victim, but the victim reopened the wounds after receiving treatment in order to commit suicide, and died.

Judgment

The court decided that it was necessary to apply the "but for" test as in R.White (but for the defendant stabbing the victim, the victim would not have been able to reopen the wounds),However "but for him opening the wounds he would have survived" This brings into account the issues of legal causation and these find that as in R.v.smith and R.v.Cheshire these cases state that the defendants acts must be the "operating and substantial cause of death" or have made a "significant contribution" by applying this to the case its clear that the Defendants original act of stabbing the victim was still the "operating and substantial cause of death" since the actions of the defendant were sufficient to have killed the victim on their own.The Thin skull rule also applys as in Blaue "you must take your victim as you find them".

External links

• Bailii.org, a free online database for English and Irish legal materials.