Odger's English Common Law

310 ACTS ENDANGERING HUMAN LIFE.
master, for instance, is bound to supply his apprentice or
servant with food and does not do so, or if he inflicts any
bodily harm on him, to his permanent injury or the danger
of his life, he is guilty of a misdemeanour punishable with
five years' penal servitude. 1
So, too, there are various
statutes which make it a misdemeanour for any one who has
charge of a lunatic to neglect or ill-treat him. 2
But the persons least able to take care of themselves are, of
course, children. The Children Act, 1908, 3 has consolidated
the law on the subject and introduced several entirely new
provisions. It applies to "children" up to the age of
fourteen, and to " young persons " up to the age of sixteen.
The main section of that Act runs as follows :
" If any person over the age of sixteen years, who has the
custody, charge or care of any child or young person, wilfully
assaults, ill-treats, neglects, abandons or exposes such child
or young person, or causes or procures such child or young
person to be assaulted, ill-treated, neglected, abandoned or
exposed, in a manner likely to cause such child or young
person unnecessary suffering or injury to his health (includ-
ing injury to or loss of sight, or hearing, or limb, or organ of
the body, and any mental derangement), that person shall be
guilty of a misdemeanour. For the purposes of this section
a parent or other person legally liable to maintain a child or
young person shall be deemed to have neglected him in a
manner likely to cause injury to his health if he fails to
provide adequate food, clothing, medical aid or lodging for
the child or young person, or if, being unable otherwise to
provide such food, clothing, medical aid or lodging, he fails
to take steps to procure the same to be provided under the
Acts relating to the relief of the poor." 4
On the trial of an indictment under this section the prosecution must
prove four things :
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(i.) That the prisoner had the custody, charge or care of a child or
. young person.
i 24 & 25 Vict. o. 100, s. 26.
2 23 & 24 Vict. c. 76, s. 13 ; 63 & 54 Vict. c. 5, 3. 322 ; and; see Buchanan v.
Hardy (1887), 18 Q. B. D. 486.
3 8 Edw. VII. c. 67.
' S. 12 (I). See ante, pp. 293, 294, and also the indictment in the Appendix, No. 8,
and M. v. Tonks, [1916] 1 K. B. 443.
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