Grievous Bodily Harm

Assault occasioning grievous bodily harm, commonly abbreviated GBH, is a term in English criminal law for the most severe forms of battery, created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. Section 20 covers unlawfully and maliciously wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm and carries a maximum sentence of five years, while section 18 requires proof of specific intent to cause grievous bodily harm or to resist arrest and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Grievous bodily harm itself is defined in case law as really serious bodily harm, a materially higher threshold of injury than actual bodily harm, and equivalent offenses exist in Northern Ireland and, as the most severe assault gradation, in Canadian law dating back to at least 1879.