LawByLak — Topic 6: Gross Negligence Manslaughter (OCR H418, Paper 1)

The other route to involuntary manslaughter — where the defendant breached a duty of care so badly the breach itself was criminal. Anchored on R v Adomako [1995] AC 171 (HL) and clarified by R v Rose [2017] EWCA Crim 1168 on the prospective risk of death.

Topic 6 covers every spec point examiners actually test on gross negligence manslaughter, written in plain English for Year 13 but cited with the precision an OCR mark scheme expects.

WHAT'S INSIDE

· Plain-English breakdown of the four Adomako stages — duty, breach, causation, grossness — each with the controlling authority, the mark-scheme phrasing, and the trap to avoid

· 16 audit-checked mark-scheme cases: Pittwood, Stone & Dobinson, Miller, Evans, Wacker, Bateman, Adomako, Misra & Srivastava, Litchfield, Smith, Cheshire, Kennedy (No 2), Blaue, Rose, Sellu, Singh

· Three-band walkthroughs (L4 → L5 → L6) on every Silver and Gold practice question — see exactly what an L4 answer looks like, what L5 adds, and the three precision moves that push it to L6

· Examiner-style notes after each L4 attempt explaining the L4-to-L5 gap, named explicitly

· Practice cycle: Bronze recall · Silver problem · Gold essay · Past Paper · Stretch & Mistakes · Quiz

· Exam Skills tab drilling IRAC structure, AO1 / AO2 / AO3 split, OCR level descriptors with marks-per-band

· AO3 spine — circularity critique, Misra risk-of-death clarification, Rose prospective-assessment point, Bawa-Garba professional vulnerability, Law Commission Report No 304 reform proposals

· Interactive diagrams: 4-stage flowchart, Rose grossness diagram, Kennedy/Evans drug-supply tree, chronological arc, UAM vs GNM comparison

· 30 flashcards across cases, statutes, mnemonics, pitfalls — with progress tracking

· RAG tracker on every specification point — mark each red, amber, or green and watch the topic-level stats update

· Reference panel — full glossary and statute lookup, search-as-you-type

· Light and dark modes, dyslexia-friendly font option, text size and line spacing controls

WHO IT'S FOR

OCR H418 students sitting Paper 1 (Criminal Law). Works as a primary revision tool, a final-week refresher, or a supplement to your school notes. Calibrated for Year 13 reading age but with the citation discipline an examiner expects at the top of the mark band.

QUALITY

Every case fact has been cross-checked against the law reports and OCR examiner reports. No silent paraphrases of judges, no apocryphal facts. Where the OCR mark scheme uses a specific formulation, that formulation is preserved.

FORMAT

· Single HTML file — opens in any modern browser

· Runs entirely on your device — no internet needed after download

· Works on phone, tablet, and laptop

· Settings, RAG progress, and flashcard state all persist in your browser between sessions

. PDF Revision Guides

Topic 7 (Assault) coming next.

LawByLak.co.uk