Manslaughter is where someone is killed but it’s done without an intention to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm. Apart from the absence of the intent, all other aspects of the offence are the same as for murder.
Voluntary manslaughter
Voluntary manslaughter is when the killing is with the intent of murder but there is a partial defence such as
- loss of control
- diminished responsibility
- pursuant to a suicide pact.
Involuntary manslaughter
Involuntary manslaughter is where there has been gross negligence or there’s been an unlawful act involving a danger of some harm that resulted in death.
What are the Sentencing Guidelines for manslaughter?
Sentencing guidelines for Manslaughter can range from 1 – 24 years and are broken down into 4 categories.
- Very high Culpability (11-24 years)
- Where there is an extreme character there is a combination of high culpability factors
- High culpability (8-16 years)
- Death was caused in the course of an unlawful act which involved an intention by the offender to cause harm or it was likely to have
- Death was caused in the course of committing or escaping from a serious offence in which the offender played more than a minor role
- Medium culpability (3-9 years)
- where death was caused in the course of an unlawful act which involved an intention by the offender to cause harm (or recklessness as to whether harm would be caused) that falls between high and lower culpability
- where death was caused in the course of committing or escaping from a less serious offence but in which the offender played more than a minor role
- Lower culpability (1-4 years)
- Death was caused in the course of an unlawful act which was in defence of themself or others
- Where there was no intention by the offender to cause any harm andno obvious risk of anything more than minor harm
- Where the offender played a minor role
- The offender’s responsibility was substantially reduced by mental disorder, learning disability or lack of maturity