R v Adomako

Parliamentary Archives,
HL/PO/JU/18/254

Regina

v.

Adomako (Appellant)
(On Appeal from the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division))

JUDGMENT

Die Jovis 30° Junii 1994

Upon Report from the Appellate Committee to whom was
referred the Cause Regina against Adomako, That the Committee had
heard Counsel as well on Tuesday the 10th as on Wednesday the
11th days of May last upon the Petition and Appeal of John Asare
Adomako of 15 Windmill Court, West Green, Crawley, West Sussex
RH10 2NA, praying that the matter of the Order set forth in the
Schedule thereto, namely an Order of Her Majesty's Court of
Appeal (Criminal Division) of the 20th day of May 1993, might be
reviewed before Her Majesty the Queen in Her Court of Parliament
and that the said Order might be reversed, varied or altered or
that the Petitioner might have such other relief in the premises
as to Her Majesty the Queen in Her Court of Parliament might seem
meet; as upon the case of the Director of Public Prosecutions (on
behalf of Her Majesty) lodged in answer to the said appeal and
due consideration had this day of what was offered on either side
in this Cause:

It is Ordered and Adjudged, by the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal in the Court of Parliament of Her Majesty the Queen
assembled, That the said Order of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal
(Criminal Division) of the 20th day of May 1993 complained of in
the said Appeal be, and the same is hereby, Affirmed and that the
said Petition and Appeal be, and the same is hereby, dismissed
this House: And it is further Ordered. That the question
certified by the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) on the 15th
day of June 1993 be answered with a declaration that:

"In cases of manslaughter by criminal negligence involving
a breach of duty, it is a sufficient direction to the jury
to adopt the gross negligence test set out by the Court of
Appeal in the present case following Rex. v. Bateman 19 Cr.
App. R.8 and Andrews v. DPP [1937] AC 576 and it is not
necessary to refer to the definition of recklessness in R.-
v. Lawrence [1982] A.C. 510, although it is perfectly open
to the trial judge to use the word "reckless" in its
ordinary meaning as part of his exposition of the law if he
deems it appropriate in the circumstances of the particular
case";

And it is also further Ordered, That there be no order as to the
Costs of the said Appeal.

Cler: Parliamentor:

Judgment: 30 June 1994

HOUSE OF LORDS

REGINA

v.

ADOMAKO
(APPELLANT)

(ON APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF APPEAL
(CRIMINAL DIVISION))

The Lord Chancellor
Lord Keith of Kinkel
Lord Goff of Chieveley
Lord Browne -Wilkinson
Lord Woolf

LORD MACKAY OF CLASHFERN L.C.

My Lords,

This is an appeal brought with the leave of your Lordships'
House granted on 23 November 1993 from an Order of Her Majesty's Court
of Appeal, Criminal Division (Lord Taylor of…