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This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.
South Australia
Criminal Law Consolidation (Assaults Causing Death)
Amendment Bill 2014
A BILL FOR
An Act to amend the Criminal
Law Consolidation Act 1935 and to make related amendments to the
Criminal
Law (Sentencing) Act 1988.
Contents
Part 1—Preliminary
1Short
title
2Amendment provisions
Part 2—Amendment of Criminal Law
Consolidation Act 1935
3Insertion of section
22A
22AAssault causing death
committed while intoxicated
Part 1—Amendment of
Criminal Law (Sentencing) Act 1988
1Amendment of section
32—Duty of court to fix or extend non-parole periods
The Parliament of South Australia enacts as
follows:
This Act may be cited as the Criminal Law Consolidation (Assaults
Causing Death) Amendment Act 2014.
In this Act, a provision under a heading referring to the amendment of a
specified Act amends the Act so specified.
Part 2—Amendment
of Criminal Law Consolidation
Act 1935
After section 22 insert:
22A—Assault causing death committed while
intoxicated
(1) A person
commits an offence against this subsection if—
(a) he or she, without the consent of another person (the
victim), intentionally makes physical contact (directly or
indirectly) with the victim, knowing that the victim might reasonably object to
the contact in the circumstances (whether or not the victim was at the time
aware of the contact); and
(b) the person is, at the time the physical contact is made, intoxicated;
and
(c) the physical contact causes the death of the victim.
(2) A person who
commits an offence against
subsection (1)
is guilty of an offence.
Penalty:
(a) in the case of an offender aged 16 years or more at the time of
the offence—imprisonment for not less than 8 years and not more than
25 years;
(b) in any other case—imprisonment for not more than
25 years.
(3) A person commits an
offence against this subsection if—
(a) he or she, without the consent of another person (the
victim), intentionally makes physical contact (directly or
indirectly) with the victim, knowing that the victim might reasonably object to
the contact in the circumstances (whether or not the victim was at the time
aware of the contact); and
(b) the physical contact causes the death of the victim.
(4) A person who commits an offence against
subsection (3) is
guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 20 years.
(5) In proceedings for an offence against this section, it is not
necessary for the prosecution to establish that—
(a) the death of the victim was reasonably foreseeable; or
(b) the defendant intended to cause harm to, or the death of, the
victim.
(6) For the purposes of this section, physical contact with a victim will
be taken to cause the death of the victim if the physical contact is the sole
cause of the victim's death or substantially contributes to the victim's
death.
(7) If at the trial of a person for an offence against
subsection (1)
the defendant proves that his or her alleged intoxication was not self-induced
(within the meaning of Part 8), the defendant may be found not guilty of an
offence against that subsection but guilty of an offence against
subsection (3).
(8) If at the trial of a person for an offence against
subsection (1)
the jury is not satisfied that the offence is proven but is satisfied that the
person has committed an offence against
subsection (3), the
jury may bring in a verdict that the accused is guilty of that
offence.
(9) If at the trial of a person for murder or manslaughter the jury is not
satisfied that the accused is guilty of the offence charged but is satisfied
that the accused is guilty of an offence against this section, the jury may
bring in a verdict that the accused is guilty of that offence.
(10) Despite any
other Act or law, a minimum penalty for an offence against
subsection (1)
cannot be—
(a) reduced or mitigated in any way; or
(b) substituted by any other penalty or sentence.
(11) In this section—
intoxicated—a person is intoxicated if the use of any
mental or physical faculty of the person is lost or appreciably impaired owing
to the influence of alcohol or any other substance or combination of
substances.
Part 1—Amendment of Criminal Law
(Sentencing) Act 1988
1—Amendment
of section 32—Duty of court to fix or extend non-parole
periods
Section 32(5)—after paragraph (ba) insert:
(bb) if fixing a non-parole period in respect of a person sentenced to
imprisonment for an offence for which a mandatory minimum period of imprisonment
is prescribed, any non-parole period fixed under this section must be a period
not less than the prescribed mandatory minimum period of imprisonment;