R v Ireland


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R v Ireland was a defining case in English Law where it was found that silence can amount to assault and furthermore actual bodily harm in the form of psychiatric injury under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.

The Case

Facts

The defendant was said to have made calls to three separate women, remaining silent and breathing heavily. The defendant was prosecuted under the Offences Against The Person Act for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Ruling

The defendant appealed, sending the case to the House of Lords which pre-Constitutional Reform Act 2005 was the highest court in the land.
The decision to convict the defendant was upheld by the House of Lords, proving assault can now, in English Law can now be found without verbal interaction.
"The proposition that a gesture may amount to an assault, but that words can never suffice, is unrealistic and indefensible. A thing said is also a thing done. There is no reason why something said should be incapable of causing an apprehension of immediate personal violence" - Lord Steyn

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