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R v Caldwell (1982)

Last modified: Thu Feb 23 16:37:37 2006

This case ([1982] AC 382) remains the leading authority on the nature of Recklessness in offenses such as criminal damage. Caldwell set fire to a hotel, in which people were staying, out of a grudge against the proprietor. He claimed intoxication as a defence to a charge of intention to endanger life; this defence was upheld, but it was ruled the intoxication was no defence against a charge of recklessness. The House of Lords held that although the accused could claim not to have forseen risk, and therefore was not subject to a charge of recklessness as set out in RVCunningham1957, recklessness could reasonably include cases where a reasonable (i.e., not drunk) person would have seen that the risk was obvious.

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