R v Goldstein; R v Rimmington

Ratio Decidendi

Facts

Two conjoined appeals concerned the scope of the common law offence of public nuisance. Mr Rimmington had sent 538 racially offensive postal packages to individually targeted recipients, including some prominent public figures, over a period of about nine years. Mr Goldstein, a kosher food supplier, had posted an envelope containing a small quantity of salt as a private joke to a friend to whom he owed money; when the envelope leaked in the post, sorting-office staff feared an anthrax attack and evacuated a building of around 110 workers for about an hour.

Judgment Summary

The House of Lords, led by Lord Bingham, allowed both appeals and quashed both convictions. Mr Rimmington's conviction could not stand because sending separate letters to separate, individually targeted recipients caused injury to those individuals rather than 'common injury to a section of the public', an essential ingredient of the offence; the House also held that where Parliament has enacted a specific statutory offence covering the conduct in question, that offence should ordinarily be charged instead of the wide and uncertain common law crime. Mr Goldstein's conviction was quashed because it was not proved that he knew, or ought to have known, that the salt would escape from the envelope and endanger the public — he had intended only a private joke that never reached its recipient.

Key Quotes

Subsequent Treatment