Legal body recommends ‘manslaughter’ reform

PEOPLE who commit “low levels of deliberate violence” which unforeseeably result in someone’s death should not be prosecuted for manslaughter, according to a new report by the country’s leading legal reform body.

The consultation paper by the Law Reform Commission has also recommended that motorists who are responsible for fatal road traffic accidents should only face manslaughter prosecutions “in extreme cases.”

The LRC paper, formally launched by Supreme Court judge, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns in Dublin last night, provisionally concludes that current law in relation to involuntary manslaughter operates satisfactorily.