Section 20 sits between ABH and wounding with intent — an offence defined by serious harm in fact but only foresight of some harm in mind.
The gap between the harm s.20 requires and the foresight it demands is what makes this offence distinctive, and it runs through every part of the analysis. This chapter sets out what the prosecution must prove and the two alternative forms of actus reus, then examines each in turn: what counts as a wound, and what makes harm grievous — including psychiatric injury, the victim's characteristics, and the modern reading of 'inflict'. It then unpacks 'maliciously' as subjective recklessness requiring foresight of only some harm, and the limited circumstances in which consent can answer injury at this level. It closes by drawing the boundaries with s.47 and s.18, and the racially or religiously aggravated form with its higher maximum sentence.
