legality of electric building defense

grizzly

A hypothetical question – does anyone know what is the legal position in installing an electric anti-personal device in a home. If an intruder was injured while interfering with the unit would the property owner be criminally liable?

I'm not taking about a taser, more like an electric fence setup that is applied to bare surfaces.

seamus

It would be illegal to install any system that is intended to injure/harm a person. It could be classed as an offensive weapon.

Intruder deterrents are technically OK afaik so long as they designed to deter someone from intruding, not to injure them when they do intrude.

As an example, taking bits of broken glass and cementing them to the top of a wall is known to be illegal in this country. This is mainly because it's designed to injure someone after they go to climb your wall.
Anti-climb devices (such as the attached pic) are quite similar in that they're sharp and may hurt. However they are a visible deterrent, clearly designed to prevent someone from climbing the wall in the first place and not designed to injure them after they try to climb it. Or at least, they are not primarily designed to injure.

Even with legal deterrents in place, an intruder could sue for damages if injured while trying to circumvent such a deterrent.

grizzly

What if a door had this warning on it;

and attempting to break in would initiate a non-lethal current, but the electrical current would also serve another purpose (eg. powering lights)

seamus

grizzly wrote: »

What if a door had this warning on it;

and attempting to break in would initiate a non-lethal current, but the electrical current would also serve another purpose (eg. powering lights)

Shaky ground, really. No such thing as a non-lethal current. If the wrong person managed to get a shock (e.g. someone with a pacemaker), next thing you know you have a manslaughter charge. Warning sign or no warning sign, anyone suffering an injury would have a valid case for compensation.

In terms of legality, provided that you made every attempt to warn the person, then I think you'd have a good case for classing it as a deterrent and not an offensive weapon. You'd really want a solicitor to look at it though.

Capt'n Midnight

perhaps look at an electric cattle fence
it should be sufficiently non-lethal

other options are master-blaster type of sonic bombs, alarms so loud an intruder would be find it hard to think