14 June 2007
R v Stephens [2007] EWCA Crim 1249, [2007] All ER (D) 438 (May)
In s 5 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 (causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult), the word “significant”, is intended to bear its ordinary meaning.
There may be room for disagreement in any given case about whether risk of serious physical harm to the deceased was or was not “significant” and, if it was, whether the defendant was or ought to have been aware of the fact, but the decision remains one of fact for the jury applying their collective understanding of the word “significant”.
