Schedule 4: Offence of non-fatal strangulation or asphyxiation: Consequential Amendments
Schedule 4 makes amendments to other enactments consequential on the new offence of non-fatal strangulation or asphyxiation, adding it to lists of offences of violence, which are prescribed for other purposes, including:
calculating the timescales for retention of forensic data;
the application of notification orders, SOPOs, foreign travel orders, risk of sexual harm orders etc.;
the imposition of extended custodial sentences;
allowing the court or jury to draw inferences from the defendant’s failure to give evidence or refusal to answer a question when charged with strangulation causing or allowing a child or vulnerable adult to die or suffer serious harm; and
ensuring that battery of a child cannot be justified on the ground that it constituted reasonable punishment.
