QUESTION
Gallodan Giants (‘Giants’) are a senior women’s rugby union team playing in the top league of the English rugby structure, which has recently become fully professional. One Saturday near the end of the season, the Giants are playing a league title game against the Monthorpe Mavericks (‘Mavericks’). This game will decide who wins this year’s league title.
It has been an exciting and emotional game and the referee has had to stop play on occasions during the game to calm the players down. The Giants are now ahead by two points with three minutes to go, when the Mavericks have the ball inside the Giants’ half of the pitch. If the Mavericks score, they will take the lead and almost certainly win the match, and the league.
Suddenly, Haya, a player for the Mavericks, breaks through the Giants’ defence and runs towards the Giants’ goal-line, looking almost certain to score. Kamala is the closest Giants player to Haya. Kamala runs across to meet Haya but is too late to make a fair tackle. Kamala is desperate to prevent Haya from scoring. Kamala is also still angry over a moment earlier in the game when she was about to take a kick and she was distracted by Haya who, she felt, was insulting her. As a result of all of this, Kamala kicks out wildly at Haya’s legs with no attempt to make a fair tackle.
A loud crack is heard as Haya’s leg breaks and she collapses to the ground. The referee blows her whistle and calls the medics on to the pitch to attend to Haya. Kamala says nothing but walks towards the Giants’ dugout as she is sent off by the referee.
Seeing the incident, Sarah, another Mavericks player, is furious at Kamala’s actions. Once Kamala has left the pitch and Haya has been stretchered off by the medics, the game restarts. Shortly afterwards, the referee blows the final whistle, and the Giants win the game, and the league title.
After the final whistle, Miriam, the Head Coach for the Mavericks, is disgusted by the exuberant celebrations of the Giants’ coaching team. Curtis, a Coach for the Giants, starts running up and down near the Maverick’s dugout celebrating wildly. Overwhelmed by the surrounding noise, Miriam hallucinates that Curtis is coming quickly towards her with fists raised to attack her. Acting quickly to defend herself, Miriam picks up a metal rugby ball pump lying on the grass near her and hits Curtis repeatedly over the head with it, crushing his skull.
Curtis dies immediately. Miriam is confused by what has happened. While she is in police custody, she is assessed by a doctor. Miriam is found to have a glioblastoma, a fast-growing brain tumour, that is causing her to hallucinate, anger very quickly and lose control of her actions. The tumour is successfully removed through brain surgery and the hallucinations and other symptoms stop.
Meanwhile, after the game, the players are getting changed in their team dressing rooms. Sarah, still angry at the injustice of the Giants winning because of Kamala’s attack on Haya, barges into the Giants’ dressing room to find Kamala. Sarah squares up to Kamala and goes to punch her on the shoulder. As she does so, Kamala’s teammate Juliana jumps in the way to protect Kamala.
Sarah’s punch connects hard with Juliana’s chest. Juliana falls to the ground and appears to be having a heart attack. She is taken away in an ambulance but is declared dead at the hospital. The post mortem shows that Juliana had an undiagnosed heart condition, which made her more susceptible to cardiac arrest. Sarah is inconsolable when she is informed of Juliana’s death.
Advise Kamala and Sarah of their likely criminal liability in relation to, respectively, the injury to Haya and the death of Juliana.
You are instructed to consider the criminal liability of two people. For both parties, you should therefore:
Use the IRAC method for answering law problem questions as set out in Section 6.1.4 of the Law undergraduate guide.
Carry out some of your own research into the applicable law to support your answer.
Structure your answer correctly as a problem answer and advise each relevant person separately, in turn.
Examine all of the elements that need to be proven for any criminal offences you think are relevant to their actions.
State the law in relation to these elements and apply it to the facts in the scenario, identifying which facts help to prove that each element has or has not been fulfilled.
Identify the elements of any relevant defences for each of them and apply these to the facts to consider if they are likely to be successful.
Reach a conclusion as to the likely liability of each relevant person, based on your analysis of the relevant offence(s) and defence(s).
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