Offences against dead bodies
Problem (Back to top)
There is not currently an explicit offence of desecration of a dead body in England and Wales. The position is surveyed in an article by Dr Imogen Jones:
“The law capable of applying to such circumstances is primarily constituted of antiquated and vague common law offences, supplemented by statutory provisions dealing with very narrow circumstances (such as organ donation, medical research and coronial jurisdiction).” I Jones, ‘A grave offence: corpse desecration and the criminal law’ (2017) 37(4) Legal Studies 599, 602. Dr Jones is an academic who has written on this issue and made a submission to the 14th Programme consultation.
The common law offences of public nuisance, outraging public decency and prevention of a lawful and decent burial provide a degree of redress in criminal law. However, as Dr Jones describes, none address desecration of a corpse in a straightforward or adequate manner.
These common law offences are supplemented by several modern statutory ones. These criminalise various interactions with corpses, but none squarely address desecration. They include:
- sexual penetration of a corpse, under section 70 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003;
- concealing the birth of a child, under section 60 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861; and
- offences in the Human Tissue Act 2004, such as removing, storing, or using human tissue for Scheduled Purposes without appropriate consent.
The criminal law, as it stands, does not adequately deal with the desecration of a corpse. In some cases, the existing offences (either at common law or in statute) do not capture certain behaviours; in others, the offences are not used to prosecute the behaviour in practice. These concerns relate both to sexual offending, such as intimate image abuse, mutilation, and other non-sexual offending, including a killer’s refusal to provide the location of their victim’s body.
Potential gaps in the criminal law identified so far include:
- dismemberment, mutilation or maiming of a corpse;
- interference with a corpse which does not amount to mutilation or maiming, such as placing, drawing or writing something on the corpse;
- failing to treat a corpse with dignity or respect, including taking, making or sharing images of a dead person which are not intimate or indecent;
- intimate image abuse involving a dead person which does not fall within the offence of possession of extreme pornography;
- non-penetrative sexual interference with a corpse;
- peri-mortem conduct which would be an offence if the victim were alive when it occurred, but the evidence does not establish whether the victim was alive or dead at the time of the conduct.
Project (Back to top)
A focused project to identify and describe unacceptable gaps in the criminal law of England and Wales, and propose new offences to fill them if necessary.
This project forms part of the Law Commission’s 14th Programme of Law Reform.
Next steps
The Law Commission will commence work on the project as soon as resources allow.
Further steps and their timings will be confirmed in due course.
Documents (Back to top)
There are no documents published as part of this project currently.
Updates (Back to top)
There are no updates on this project currently.
Contact (Back to top)
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