Criminal Law Legislation Update
| Author | Sally Louise Ireland |
| Published date | 01 April 2005 |
| Date | 01 April 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.69.2.92.63530 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Criminal Law Legislation
Update*
Sally Louise Ireland†
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004
The Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 (
C
. 28) was passed
on 15 November 2004. Its substantive provisions are not yet in force;
they will commence by order of the Secretary of State (s. 60). However,
since the Act creates new offences (including a homicide offence) and
contains important procedural reforms, it will be dealt with here in some
detail.
The 2004 Act has three substantive Parts. Part 1 deals with domestic
violence, Part 2 with criminal justice matters such as, inter alia, police
powers and court procedure, and Part 3 deals with victims and in
particular their rights and the Victims’ Code. In general, the Act applies
only to England and Wales; certain sections also extend to Northern
Ireland.
This article will deal with Part 1 and part of Part 2. The remainder of
Part 2, including limits to the right to trial by jury and provisions on
unfitness to plead and insanity, will be dealt with in the next issue, along
with Part 3 and other recent legislation.
Part 1
Section 1 of the 2004 Act creates an offence where a non-molestation
order is breached by inserting a new s. 42A into the Family Law Act
1996. The offence is committed where a person does anything that he is
prohibited from doing by a non-molestation order without a reasonable
excuse, at a time when he is aware of the existence of the order. The
section excludes the possibility of proceedings for contempt of court in
relation to the breach when criminal proceedings under s. 42A take
place. The offence is triable either way; the maximum penalty on
indictment is five years’ imprisonment and/or a fine.
Section 5 reforms the law of homicide, in an attempt to deal with the
difficult situation where it is suspected that a child or vulnerable adult
has been unlawfully killed by one of his carers. For the offence to be
made out the following elements must be proved: (1) that a child or
vulnerable adult (V) has died as a result of the unlawful act of a person
who was a member of the same household as V and had frequent
contact with him; (2) the defendant (D) must have been such a person
at the time of that act; (3) at that time there must have been a significant
* As at 26 January 2005.
†Sally Ireland is a non-practising criminal barrister and a postgraduate student at the
London School of Economics.
92
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