{"id":5605,"date":"2018-03-07T09:26:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T09:26:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2019-06-28T11:52:02","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T11:52:02","slug":"r-v-ruffel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/r-v-ruffel.php","title":{"rendered":"R v Ruffel – 1991"},"content":{"rendered":"

R v Ruffel [1991] 13 Cr App R<\/strong><\/p>\n

Public Nuisance \u2013 Common Law Offence<\/p>\n

Facts<\/h3>\n

The defendant had thrown an \u2018acid house\u2019 party which had attracted thousands of people.\u00a0 The party involved very loud music that continued overnight for some 12 hours.\u00a0 The party had caused traffic to block a road leading to the site and the woodlands had been littered with human excrement.\u00a0 The defendant was accused of the common offence of public nuisance and was convicted.\u00a0 He was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 12 months and had been fined \u00a37,000.\u00a0 The defendant appealed against his sentence.<\/p>\n

Issues<\/h3>\n

Whether the defendant was acting as a public nuisance or not.\u00a0 Whether the party which only lasted for just over 12 hours could constitute a public nuisance.\u00a0 Whether the defendant\u2019s sentence was unfair or manifestly unjust.<\/p>\n

Decision\/Outcome<\/h3>\n

The defendant had been acting as a public nuisance.\u00a0 Following Attorney General v PYA Quarries [1957] 2 QB 169 <\/strong>a public nuisance must be capable of indiscriminately effecting a class of people within a neighbourhood.\u00a0 This was the case as a result of the very loud music of the party, the littering and fouling of the nearby woodlands, and because of the extremely heavy traffic that had been caused as a result of the party blocking the road to the area.\u00a0 These elements were enough to have affected a cross section of a class of Her Majesty\u2019s subjects within the area, and it was reasonable to expect them to have to take action to prevent it.\u00a0 Whilst the defendants suspended sentence was upheld, his fine was quashed because he had no means to pay it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The defendant had thrown an \u2018acid house\u2019 party which had attracted thousands of people.\u00a0The party involved very loud music that continued overnight for some 12…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-5605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-uk-law"],"yoast_head":"\nR v Ruffel - 1991 | LawTeacher.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The defendant had thrown an \u2018acid house\u2019 party which had attracted thousands of people.\u00a0The party involved very loud music that continued overnight for some 12...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/r-v-ruffel.php\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"R v Ruffel - 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