Gross Negligence Manslaughter case receives NFA

Case study summary

After being accused of manslaughter, an extremely serious offence, our client was understandably emotionally drained by his experience and needed expert support.

We carried out research into the caselaw surrounding the offence and persuaded the police to end the case.

Case study

Our client was a taxi driver who had collected a passenger on his way home from a night out. The passenger was drunk, and during the journey he began to comment on our client's ethnicity and grabbed at the steering wheel.

Our client was understandably terrified that the passenger might interfere with his driving and cause a serious accident. To prevent this, he stopped the car on the hard shoulder and asked the passenger to get out. They both exited the vehicle and the passenger assaulted our client, ripping a hole in the shoulder of our client's jacket.

Because he was fearful for what might happen next our client returned to the vehicle and left. He called his company to report this, but was not able to reach anyone.

Unfortunately, the passenger later walked into the road and was killed when he was struck by a car.

We approached this case carefully and with the seriousness that it deserved. We took instructions from our client and set out his series of events. We also prepared detailed and thorough research of the case law relating to Gross Negligence Manslaughter and applied this to our client's case.

In order for someone to be guilty of Gross Negligence Manslaughter, they must have a duty of care for another person, breach that duty due to criminal negligence. This breach must then result in a death.

It was clear that, while he may have had a duty of care for the passenger at the outset of the journey, this duty vanished after the passenger became verbally and physically aggressive towards our client.

We drafted detailed representations to the police, who at this time had consulted with specialists at the Crown Prosecution Service, and set out our client's case in light of the case law. We also provided police with pictures of our client's jacket, adding to the strength of his account.

After a sensitive and complex investigation, the police and Crown Prosecution Service were persuaded by our representations and took no further action against our client.

During the investigation, our client had lost his work and was focusing on finding a job so that he could continue to support his young family. After he received the news that the police were ending their case, our client was able to finally move on.