R v Blaue [1975] 1 WLR 1411 Court of Appeal

The defendant stabbed an 18 year old girl four times when she refused to have sexual intercourse with him. She was a practising Jehovah's witness and refused to have a blood transfusion which would have saved her life. The defendant was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and appealed arguing that the girl's refusal to accept the blood transfusion was a novus actus interveniens breaking the chain of causation, alternatively that Holland was no longer good law.

Held:

The defendant's conviction was upheld. The wound was still an operative cause of death (following R v Smith & R v Jordan) so no novus actus interveniens and Holland was still good law.

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