FB AGAINST PROCURATOR FISCAL, ABERDEEN

[1] The appellant was convicted after trial of contravention of section 12(1) of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937, committed on 26 January 2012 in relation to her 9 month old daughter. The nub of the charge lay in failing adequately to supervise the child, resulting in a quantity of hot liquid making contact with her skin and causing injury. The appellant has appealed against conviction by means of a stated case in which the following questions have been posed:

“The appellant failed adequately to supervise the child, in consequence of which a quantity of hot liquid made contact with the child’s skin, resulting in her sustaining an injury”

[2] In presenting the appeal, Miss Mitchell raised, for the first time, an issue in relation to the form of the charge, which was in the following terms:

Miss Mitchell’s submission was twofold. First, she submitted that the charge did not relevantly aver an offence under the 1937 Act, since it averred that the appellant had wilfully caused suffering to the child. The relevant section provided as follows:

“If any person who has attained the age of sixteen years and who has parental responsibilities in relation to a child or to a young person under that age or has charge or care of a child or such a young person wilfully ill-treats, neglects, abandons, or exposes him, or causes or procures him to be ill-treated, neglected, abandoned, or exposed, in a manner likely to cause him unnecessary suffering or injury to health (including 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 an offence”