Wounding or causing grievous bodily harm with intent — the most serious non-fatal offence against the person, where liability turns on proof of specific intent.
A maximum of life imprisonment separates s.18 from every other non-fatal offence, and that severity is justified by a single ingredient: the defendant's intent. This chapter sets out the structure of the offence and its three elements, then works through the actus reus — the legal meaning of a wound, what counts as grievous bodily harm including psychiatric injury, and when medical treatment breaks the chain of causation. It moves to the mens rea, covering direct and oblique intent and transferred malice, before examining the second limb based on intent to resist lawful apprehension and what follows if the apprehension was unlawful. It closes with how intoxication, self-defence and consent operate against a s.18 charge, the alternative verdict available where specific intent is not proved, and the line that divides s.18 from s.20.
