LawByLak — Topic 18: Duress (OCR H418, Paper 1)

Duress and Necessity

Three doors into one defence, and a murder exclusion that has swallowed more answers than any other rule on the paper.

29 authorities in full · 33 spec checkpoints · 41 flashcards · 8 model answers from Level 2 to Level 4 · 1 real past paper, worked

Duress by threats, duress of circumstances and necessity are three routes into the same question: was this defendant left with a real choice? They share a test, they share a murder exclusion, and they part company on where the pressure came from. Answers go wrong by picking the wrong door and never noticing.

What is inside

• The three doors, and how to tell which one you are standing in. A threat from a person, a threat from circumstances, or a genuine necessity. The facts decide, not the label.
• The Graham test, both limbs, and the nine gates a duress answer has to pass, each one mapped so you can see how far through you are.
• The murder exclusion from Howe and Gotts, including attempted murder, and why Wilson is the case that makes it feel indefensible.
• Hasan and voluntary association. The rule that closes the defence to a defendant who joined a criminal gang, and the exact point at which foresight bites.
• Necessity on its own footing, from Re F to Quayle and Altham, and why the medical cases sit apart from the rest.
• Twenty-nine authorities grouped by what they decide, plus the pairs that get confused and the corrections OCR’s own materials need.

Checked, including where OCR is wrong

Six citation errors in OCR’s own published materials are identified and corrected here, with the right citation supplied each time. Where a case name in a mark scheme does not exist, the guide says which case was meant. Every citation is verified against the law report.

What we will not pretend

Duress has been examined once: June 2023, Question 6, Part 1, twenty marks, AO1 8 and AO2 12. Necessity has never appeared in any OCR mark scheme. Duress is not named in the specification’s evaluation strand, which lists intoxication, self-defence and consent, so it cannot be set as an essay. The evaluation material here is enrichment and is labelled as such rather than sold as exam content.

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