Regina v. Blaue
England Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
[1975] 3 All E.R. 446
Relevant factsFree
Blaue stabbed an 18-year-old woman four times after she refused to have sex with him, and one wound punctured her lung. At the hospital, she refused a blood transfusion that could have saved her life because of her religious beliefs as a Jehovah's Witness, and she died. Blaue was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter based on diminished responsibility, and he appealed, arguing her refusal of treatment broke the chain of causation between his stabbing and her death.
IssueFree
Whether a defendant may be found guilty of causing a death when, at the time he inflicted the mortal wound, it remained the operating and substantial cause of death.