APPENDIX FOUR: Remedies Criminal
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1 APPENDIX FOUR: Remedies Criminal Liability At Common Law Anderson, writing in 1904 and citing a series of Scottish cases from 1839 to 1868, says this: If a person has power over another, or a duty of taking care of another, and grossly neglects or cruelly ill-treats the dependent, he is guilty of an offence. Sick persons and children are peculiarly liable to neglect and ill-usage.1 After a discussion of the then extant Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1894 (for which see below) he goes on to describe exposure and desertion of infants as a crime at common law, and states that “even placing the child in danger, without actual intent to desert, is criminal, as in sending the child in a basket by rail without informing the officials”.2 Macdonald is to the same effect.3 In David and Janet Gemmell4 parents pled guilty to a charge of “cruel and unnatural treatment” of their child whom they had locked in a cupboard and failed to afford wholesome food or decent clothing. A charge was held competent in 1881 of “culpable and wilful neglect and bad treatment of a child of tender age by a person who has the custody and keeping of it, whereby the child is injured in its health”.5 The essence of the common law crime was that the accused had some pre-existing obligation of care over the child but there was no requirement to prove any intent to injure: as such actions wider than would justify a charge of assault would be covered, but a more restricted class of persons could face the charge. This principle is reflected in the statutory formulation of the common law crime which, though today is contained in s. 12 of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1937, traces its origins to the th Prevention of Cruelty to Children statutes from the late 19 Century. 1 AM Anderson, The Criminal Law of Scotland Edinburgh, Bell and Bradfute, 1904 at p. 167. 2 Anderson The Criminal Law of Scotland at pp. 171-172, citing Gibson (1845) 2 Broun 366. 3 JHA Macdonald A Practical Treatise on the Criminal Law of Scotland (5th edn, W. Green, 1948) at p. 125, citing Hume Commentaries on the Law of Scotland Respecting Crimes, i, 299 and Alison, Principles and Practice of the Criminal Law of Scotland, i, 162. See also MGA Christie, Gordon’s Criminal Law (3rd edn, 2001) vol. 2 para 31.01. 4 (1841) 2 Swinton 552. 5 McIntosh (1881) 4 Couper 389. 2 The Statutory Offence of Neglect or Ill-treatment of Children The earliest of the child cruelty statutes is the Prevention of Cruelty to, and Protection of, Children Act, 1889, s. 1 of which read as follow: “Any person over sixteen years of age who, having custody, control, or charge of a child, being a boy under the age of fourteen years, or being a girl under the age of sixteen years, wilfully ill-treats, neglects, abandons or exposes such a child, or causes or procures such child to be ill-treated, neglected, abandoned, or exposed, in a manner likely to cause such child unnecessary suffering, or injury to its health shall be guilty of” an offence.6 This provision was amended by the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Amendment Act, 1894, which added “assault” to the list of actions that amounted to the offence, and equalised at 16 the ages for both boys and girls who were to be protected under the provision. The 1889 Act was then replaced by the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1894, s. 1 of which repeated the earlier s. 1, but with an expanded notion of “injury to health”: “If any person over the age of sixteen years, who has the custody, charge or care, of any child under the age of sixteen years, wilfully assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons, or exposes, such a child, or causes or procures such child to be assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, abandoned, or exposed, in a manner likely to cause such child unnecessary suffering, or injury to its health (including injury to or loss of sight, or hearing, or limb, or organ of the body, and any mental derangement), that person shall be guilty of” an offence. The reference to “mental derangement” is to be noted, as an early recognition that neglect and ill-treatment may cause emotional or psychological as well as physical harm to children, though the phrase has not been subject to any judicial construction since its introduction. Ill-treatment leading to unnecessary suffering is clearly wide enough to include suffering of the mind (even short of a clinically recognised injury) as well as bodily suffering. 6 Penalties were relatively severe: a fine or up to £100 or imprisonment for up to two years (if charged on indictment), or £25 or three months imprisonment (after summary conviction). 3 Section 1 of the 1894 Act was replaced, without amendment, by s. 1 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1904, which itself subsequently became s. 12 of the Children Act, 1908: “If any person over the age of sixteen years, who has the custody, charge or care of a child or young person7 wilfully assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons, or exposes such child or young person to be assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, abandoned, or exposed, in a manner likely to cause such child or young person unnecessary suffering or injury to his health (including injury to or loss of sight, or hearing, or limb, or organ of the body and any mental derangement), that person shall be guilty of [an offence] … and for the purposes of this section a parent or other person legally liable to maintain a child or young person shall be deemed to have neglected him in a manner likely to cause injury to his health if he fails to provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging for the child or young person, or if, being unable otherwise to provide such food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging, he fails to take such steps to procure the same to be provided under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor”.8 The Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1932 raised the age at which an individual was considered to be a young person to 17,9 but the offence in s. 12 of the 1908 Act remained limited to victims under the age of 16. To achieve that, Schedule 2 to the 1932 Act amended the 1908 Act so that s. 12 now read: “If any person who has attained the age of sixteen years and who has the custody, charge or care of a child or young person under the age of sixteen years wilfully assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons, or exposes such child or young person to be assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, abandoned, or exposed, in a manner likely to cause such child or young person unnecessary suffering or injury to his health (including injury to or loss of sight, or hearing, or limb, or organ of the body and any mental derangement), that person shall be guilty of 7 “Child” was a person below school leaving age, then 14, and “young person” was a person above that age but below 16. 8 This last part was added to the earlier formulation, probably in response to the case of R v Senior [1899] 1 QB 283 where parents were charged with causing the death of their child through failure (for religious reasons) to seek necessary medical treatment. That failure was held to be implicitly included in the 1894 Act, and the new words in the 1908 Act make this explicit. 9 Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act ,1932 Act, s. 64. 4 [an offence] … and for the purposes of this section a parent or other person legally liable to maintain a child or young person shall be deemed to have neglected him in a manner likely to cause injury to his health if he fails to provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging for the child or young person, or if, being unable otherwise to provide such food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging, he fails to take such steps to procure the same to be provided under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor”. Section 12 of the Children Act, 1908, as so amended, remained extant until the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1937, which repealed most of the 1908 Act and replaced s. 12 thereof with a new s. 12. As enacted the new s. 12 read: “(1) If any person who has attained the age of sixteen years and has the custody, charge or care of any child or young person under that age10 wilfully assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons, or exposes him, or causes or procures him to be assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, abandoned, or exposed, in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health (including injury to or loss of sight, or hearing, or limb, or organ of the body, and any mental derangement), that person shall be guilty of an offence … (2) For the purposes of this section – (a) a parent or other person legally liable to maintain a child or young person shall be deemed to have neglected him in a manner likely to cause injury to his health if he has failed to provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging for him, or if, having been unable otherwise to provide such food, clothing, medical aid, or lodging, he has failed to take steps to procure it to be provided under the Acts relating to the relief of the poor.