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PART 6 E+WOffences involving abusive or violent behaviour

Offences against the personE+W

70Strangulation or suffocationE+W

(1)In Part 5 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 (protection of children and others), after section 75 insert—

Strangulation or suffocationE+W
75AStrangulation or suffocation

(1)A person (“A”) commits an offence if—

(a)A intentionally strangles another person (“B”), or

(b)A does any other act to B that—

(i)affects B's ability to breathe, and

(ii)constitutes battery of B.

(2)It is a defence to an offence under this section for A to show that B consented to the strangulation or other act.

(3)But subsection (2) does not apply if—

(a)B suffers serious harm as a result of the strangulation or other act, and

(b)A either—

(i)intended to cause B serious harm, or

(ii)was reckless as to whether B would suffer serious harm.

(4)A is to be taken to have shown the fact mentioned in subsection (2) if—

(a)sufficient evidence of the fact is adduced to raise an issue with respect to it, and

(b)the contrary is not proved beyond reasonable doubt.

(5)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—

(a)on summary conviction—

(i)to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months (or 6 months, if the offence was committed before the coming into force of paragraph 24(2) of Schedule 22 to the Sentencing Act 2020), or

(ii)to a fine,

or both;

(b)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or to a fine, or both.

(6)In this section “serious harm” means—

(a)grievous bodily harm, within the meaning of section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861,

(b)wounding, within the meaning of that section, or

(c)actual bodily harm, within the meaning of section 47 of that Act.

75BOffences under section 75A committed outside the United Kingdom

(1)If—

(a)a person does an act in a country outside the United Kingdom,

(b)the act, if done in England and Wales, would constitute an offence under section 75A, and

(c)the person is a United Kingdom national or is habitually resident in England and Wales,

the person is guilty in England and Wales of that offence.

(2)In this section—

(2)Schedule 2 contains consequential amendments.

Commencement Information

I1S. 70 in force at 7.6.2022 by S.I. 2022/553, regs. 1(2), 3(a)

71Consent to serious harm for sexual gratification not a defenceE+W

(1)This section applies for the purposes of determining whether a person (“D”) who inflicts serious harm on another person (“V”) is guilty of a relevant offence.

(2)It is not a defence that V consented to the infliction of the serious harm for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification (but see subsection (4)).

(3)In this section—

(4)Subsection (2) does not apply in the case of an offence under section 20 or 47 of the 1861 Act where—

(a)the serious harm consists of, or is a result of, the infection of V with a sexually transmitted infection in the course of sexual activity, and

(b)V consented to the sexual activity in the knowledge or belief that D had the sexually transmitted infection.

(5)For the purposes of this section it does not matter whether the harm was inflicted for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification for D, V or some other person.

(6)Nothing in this section affects any enactment or rule of law relating to other circumstances in which a person's consent to the infliction of serious harm may, or may not, be a defence to a relevant offence.