Criminal Seminar 14 - Group FT211 - Manciple moot by Claire Turner https://padlet.com/claire43/49ahm6la07rr en-us 2018-11-01 13:32:50 UTC 2025-04-24 08:21:03 UTC hello@padlet.com On 1st August, 2021, at Southmouth Crown Court, before Bedlam J. and a jury, Harold Manciple was convicted of the murder of Prusilla Nemus.Between 10.20 and 10.25 p.m. on the bitterly cold night of 15th December 2020, in the waters of the English Channel just outside Southmouth harbour, several massive explosions shook the cross-channel passenger ferry the Chances of Life as she began her voyage to St Malo, France. One explosion disabled the vessel's engines; the others blew very large holes in her starboard side below the water line. She took on water at a great rate and was soon listing dangerously. At 11.14 p.m. the Chances of Life keeled over and sank, with the loss of all persons still on board except a very few strong swimmers.Undisputed evidence was given at the trial of the following incident during the attempted evacuation of the vessel. At about 10.50 p.m. Mrs Nemus, an elderly lady, was half way up a stairway leading from the below-deck forward lounge to the deck from which access would be had to the lifeboats. Behind her on the stairway were some dozen people waiting to make their escape. The lounge, in which the lights had failed, was rapidly filling with water. Those above Mrs Nemus had passed off the stairway; but for many seconds Mrs Nemus stood where she was, blocking the way. She was heard to scream, "I can't swim." (It is thought that panic may have confused her and that she imagined that the ship's side was immediately at the top of the stairway.)Immediately behind Mrs Nemus was the defendant, Mr Manciple. He had tried to push Mrs Nemus up the stairs but she had gone rigid and resisted him so he pulled her off the stairway so that she fell back into the black and icy waters of the flooded lounge and was drowned. At his trial for the murder of Mrs Nemus he admitted that, hearing that Mrs Nemus could not swim, he had realised that her death by drowning was a virtually certain result of her falling back into the lounge. Mr Manciple said "She depended on a miracle to save her, once I pushed her off." But he explained that he was fully aware of the peril that the ship was in. He had believed, indeed, that it was likely to sink within a very few minutes, in which case if Mrs Nemus stayed where she was she would die when the ship went down, along with all those behind her. He had therefore acted as he did in order to give himself and those behind Mrs Nemus their only chance of survival. In the event the final catastrophe occurred some twenty to twenty-five minutes later. All on the stairway in question had by that time been taken off the ship.On the question of the intention required for murder, Bedlam J told the jury that he was sure they would not find that the defendant had wanted to kill Mrs Nemus. But, he said, "a desire to kill is not in every case required to make a person guilty of murder. A person is guilty of murder not only if it is his purpose to kill by the act of his which does cause another's death, but also if he realises that another's death is virtually certain to be the result of his act. I shall put it to you very simply: if you are sure that Mr Manciple realised that Mrs Nemus's death by drowning in the flooded lounge was the virtually certain result of his pushing her off the stairway, then he would in law have had an intent to kill her and that would make his act murder."Manciple now appeals against his conviction on the following ground: (l) That the learned judge misdirected the jury on the question of the intent required for murder. claire43 https://padlet.com/claire43/49ahm6la07rr/wish/2010782415 2022-01-25 09:44:15 UTC https://padlet.com/claire43/49ahm6la07rr/wish/2010782415 claire43 https://padlet.com/claire43/49ahm6la07rr/wish/2010870824 2022-01-25 10:35:19 UTC https://padlet.com/claire43/49ahm6la07rr/wish/2010870824 https://padlet.com/claire43/49ahm6la07rr/wish/2010971874 2022-01-25 11:41:51 UTC https://padlet.com/claire43/49ahm6la07rr/wish/2010971874 isabellabb1 https://padlet.com/claire43/49ahm6la07rr/wish/2011498875 Following the decision in Woollin, the effect of the direction of oblique intent is a legal test determining intention. ]]> 2022-01-25 15:42:55 UTC https://padlet.com/claire43/49ahm6la07rr/wish/2011498875