All over the news yesterday was a conviction for unlawful wounding. The phrase got me thinking and wondering if there was any other kind?
Wikipedia lumps unlawful wounding and grievous bodily harm together and references back to an Act put on the statute books in 1851. There is also detail on the different kinds of charges on the Crown Prosecution Service web site.
Finally I came to the realisation that doctors and dentists "wound" you in the course of treatment, if "wounding means the breaking of the continuity of the whole of the outer skin, or the inner skin within the cheek or lip". Mystery solved.
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