LawByLak — Topic 7: Common-Law Assault (OCR H418, Paper 1)

Common-law assault — the apprehension-based non-fatal offence, distinct from battery. Anchored on R v Ireland; R v Burstow [1998] AC 147 (HL), with the procedural home in s.39 Criminal Justice Act 1988. The first non-fatal offence on the OCR ladder, the actus-reus foundation for s.47 ABH and every higher offence.

Topic 7 covers every spec point examiners actually test on common-law assault, written in plain English for Year 13 but cited with the precision an OCR mark scheme expects.

WHAT'S INSIDE

· Plain-English breakdown of both elements — actus reus (apprehension, immediacy, unlawful force) and mens rea (intention or Cunningham recklessness) — each with the controlling authority, the mark-scheme phrasing, and the trap to avoid

· 15 audit-checked mark-scheme cases: Lamb, Logdon, Smith v CC Woking, Constanza, Ireland; Burstow, Tuberville v Savage, Light, Read v Coker, Meade & Belt, Venna, Spratt, Cunningham, Mohan, Majewski, Brown

· NEW — Approach callouts on every element tab: a 5-step student-thinking layer (Signal · Questions · Anchor cases · Trap · L4→L6 climb move) that teaches you how to read the facts, not just the cases

· How to Answer mini-guides on the Practice tab: six-move IRAC for problem questions, five-move four-paragraph structure for evaluation questions, with concrete word counts per mark band

· 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 — immediacy drift critique (Smith → Constanza → Ireland), common-law / statutory hybrid problem, labelling confusion between assault and battery, psychiatric harm extension via Ireland and Burstow, half-MR ladder critique forward to s.47, basic intent and intoxication tension (Majewski)

· Interactive diagrams: assault vs battery decision tree, immediacy doctrine timeline, words-as-assault flowchart, defences map

· 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 (s.39 CJA 1988, s.1 Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 as amended by s.2 PCSC Act 2022, s.58 Children Act 2004), 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). The first topic in the non-fatal offences cluster — sets up the AR vocabulary you'll need for Topic 8 (Battery), Topic 9 (s.47 ABH), Topic 10 (s.20 GBH), and Topic 11 (s.18 GBH with intent). 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. The s.39 CJA 1988 procedural home is distinguished carefully from the common-law definition of the offence itself — a recurring AO1 error OCR examiner reports specifically flag.

FORMAT

· Single HTML file — opens in any modern browser

. PDF Revision Guide

· 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

Topic 8 (Battery) coming next.

LawByLak.co.uk