Quote: Ferocious Aardvark "With respect, m'lud, I beg leave to draw your lordship's attention to section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988An offence of Common Assault is committed when a person either assaults another person or commits a battery.
* An assault is committed when a person intentionally or recklessly causes another to apprehend the immediate infliction of unlawful force.
* A battery is committed when a person intentionally or recklessly applies unlawful force to another.
Thus indeed in the case of a reckless strike an offence of common assault is committed.'"
But as any trainee wannabe legal types would know that in contact sport there is an element of consent to physical contact & that there has to be a mental element as well as a physical element for a crime of assault to have been committed. I think.
