Non-fatal offences against the person include assault, battery, actual bodily harm (ABH) and grievous bodily harm (GBH) in its two forms. However, there is no clear statutory definition for either assault or for battery, while definitions of the more serious offences are contained in an Act passed back in 1861, with much of the vocabulary old-fashioned and even misleading. This shows that there is a gap in the law. …
