8 March 2012
4.Section 5 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 created an offence of causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult. That offence was created to deal with cases where it was clear that one of a number of adults in a household was responsible for the death of a child or vulnerable adult in that household but it could not be proved which.
5.The Act extends the offence in section 5 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, to cover causing or allowing serious physical harm (equivalent to grievous bodily harm) to a child or vulnerable adult.
6.The Act also provides for special procedural and evidential rules, similar to those at section 6 of the 2004 Act, which apply to certain offences which are charged within the same proceedings as the extended section 5 offence.