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R v Vi [2005] TongaLawRp 16; [2005] Tonga LR 278 (10 June 2005)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF TONGA

R

v

Vi

Supreme Court, Ha'apai
Webster CJ
CR 18/05

14 and 15 March 2005; 10 June 2005

Criminal law – manslaughter – cause of death – guilty

The victim, Sime Soakai, had been drinking beside Pangai market with Suli Fililava, Malu Mafi and Sione Mahe on the morning of Saturday 3 July 2004 from around 10am, and they had consumed 2 bottles of vodka. During that time the victim had fallen backwards off his chair, and had also fallen when he got up to go to the toilet. At around 2.00-3.00 pm the members of the drinking party, including the victim, all walked up from the market to the main road at Pangai. At that stage the victim had been shouting very loudly and noisily his usual words such as "No one here at Pangai, I will destroy Pangai". When the men reached the main road they had started walking south along the main road. The accused, Tevita Vi, heard the victim shouting and stepped over the fence onto the road and told him to keep quiet, but he kept on shouting. The accused slapped the victim who fell to the ground. Blood came out of the victim's ear and mouth. He suffered a severe head injury. They put him into a vehicle and rushed him to hospital. The victim died three months later on 18 October 2004 of complications. The accused was charged with manslaughter and alternatively with bodily harm.

Held:

1. There was no requirement for the prosecution to establish an intention by the accused to cause the deceased bodily injury which the accused knew was likely to cause death and was reckless whether death ensued or not. All that need be proved was that the accused intentionally did what he did, that the death was caused by it and that, applying an objective test, all sober and reasonable people would recognise the risk that some harm would result.

2. As a matter of law an accused was still criminally liable if he hit a blow which was a cause of death; the incident need not be the sole cause of death, nor even a substantial cause, but it must be one of the causes and something more than de minimis. Even if something else happened after the original blow, it was enough that the original blow contributed significantly to the resulting death, if at the time of death the original injury was still an operating cause and a substantial cause, albeit that some other cause was operating.