R v Criminal Injuries Compensation Board ex parte Staten 1972

FACTS:-

 The Applicant and her husband lived with their children in two council flats knocked into one. He was sent to prison for assaulting her, but moved back into the matrimonial home although he slept on the sofa. He then assaulted her again and she made a claim to the CICB. The CICB refused the claim on the grounds that it was caught by paragraph 7 of the Scheme. This stated:-

 Paragraph 7 of the 1969 Scheme provided:-

 “Where the victims who suffered injuries and the offender who inflicted them were living together at the time as members of the same family, no compensation will be payable. For the purposes of this paragraph where a man and a woman were living together as man and wife they will be treated as if they were married to one another.”

The Applicant applied for permission to judicially review this decision.

HELD:-

Lord Widgery CJ said that the Scheme was intended to be set out in simple language and a phrase such as “living together as members of the same family” ought to be given it ordinary straightforward meaning. This was a pure question of fact. There was no justification for saying that the CICB had erred in law.