To establish the offence of manslaughter of the type of which the appellant had been convicted it had to be shown (a) that he had committed an unlawful act, (b) that the act was dangerous in the sense that a sober and reasonable person would inevitably recognise that it carried some risk of harm, (c) that the act was a substantial cause of death and (d) that he intended to commit the act, as distinct from intending its consequences. It did not matter that the act had been aimed at some person other than the victim or that the death had not arisen due to some immediate impact on, or physical contact with, the victim since the primary question was one of causation, ie whether the appellant's act caused the victim's death. Moreover, it was open to the jury on the evidence before them to conclude that it had been the cause of death (see p 429 e f, p 431 h j and p 432 d g, post); R v Pagett (1983) Times, 4 February applied.