March 21, 2005: New Familial Homicide Offence

A new offence of causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult comes into force from today. The new offence of familial homicide, introduced in the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004, closes a legal loophole that allows those jointly accused of the murder of a child or vulnerable adult to escape justice by remaining silent or blaming each other. The Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act received Royal Assent on 15 November 2004. Domestic violence accounts for 16 per cent of all crime in England and Wales.

This measure puts a clear legal responsibility on adult household members who have frequent contact with a child or vulnerable adult to take reasonable steps to protect the child or vulnerable adult if they knew or should have known they were at significant risk of serious physical harm from members of that household. The reasonable steps that an adult household member is expected to take will vary according to the circumstances of the case and ultimately it will be for the jury to decide if the person acted reasonably.

Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland said:

“It is clearly unacceptable that where we know one of a small group of people must have caused the death, but we do not know which one, those people should all escape justice. Where there are co –accused it is sometimes possible to bring charges of cruelty or neglect against them both but these charges do not reflect the seriousness of the offence.

“The new offence also reflects this Government’s belief that, where adult household members have frequent contact with a child or vulnerable adult, both the person who caused the death, and the person who stood by and did not prevent it, must bear some criminal responsibility for what happened."