Paul and Mark were out hiking together when they got into an argument
about politics. During the argument, Paul lost his temper and punched
Mark several times to the face. When Mark was lying on the floor, Paul
stamped on Mark’s head four times. Paul then fled the scene, but some
other hikers called an ambulance and Mark was taken to the hospital in
a serious condition. At the hospital, an overworked consultant, who had
been on duty for 15 hours, failed to notice that Mark had suffered a
blood clot on the brain. Mark died several hours after being admitted to
hospital and being sent to a normal ward, rather than intensive care.
When Paul got home, he told his wife, Sarah, what had happened with
Mark. Sarah became very upset and told Paul that he must tell the police
and also telephone the hospital to check on Mark’s condition. Paul
panicked and pushed Sarah hard in the chest. This caused Sarah to fall
down and hit her head on the corner of a table. Due to having an
exceptionally weak skull, Sarah died immediately.
Terrified about what had happened, Paul decided to drive to the
countryside, where he owned a small cottage. As he was driving there
and feeling terrible about what he had done, he failed to notice that the
car ahead of him had stopped and crashed into the back of it. When he
got out of the car, he saw that Ernie, the driver of the car, was seriously
injured and unconscious. Paul tried to call an ambulance, but there was
no reception on his mobile phone. As a result, he walked a few hundred
yards up the road until he had reception, but then decided that he might
be traced if he made the call. Paul then got in his car and left Ernie, who
was later found, taken to hospital and put on a life support machine.
Two days later the doctors decided that Ernie would not recover and
switched the life support off.
Advise Paul on his liability for the deaths.
Note: You do not need to deal with the partial defences to murder
when answering this question.