90
plan, kill civilians by setting their houses on fire, all the other participants in the plan are
criminally responsible for the killing if these deaths were predictable.
205.
The case-law in this category has concerned first of all cases of mob violence, that
is, situations of disorder where multiple offenders act out a common purpose, where each of
them commit offences against the victim, but where it is unknown or impossible to ascertain
exactly which acts were carried out by which perpetrator, or when the causal link between
each act and the eventual harm caused to the victims is similarly indeterminate. Cases
illustrative of this category are Essen Lynching and Borkum Island.
206.
As is set forth in more detail below, the requirements which are established by these
authorities are two-fold: that of a criminal intention to participate in a common criminal
design and the foreseeability that criminal acts other than those envisaged in the common
criminal design are likely to be committed by other participants in the common design.
207.
The Essen Lynching (also called Essen West) case was brought before a British
military court, although, as was stated by the court, it “was not a trial under English law”. 255
Given the importance of this case, it is worth reviewing it at some length. Three British
prisoners of war had been lynched by a mob of Germans in the town of Essen-West on 13
December 1944. Seven persons (two servicemen and five civilians) were charged with
committing a war crime in that they were concerned in the killing of the three prisoners of
war. They included a German captain, Heyer, who had placed the three British airmen
under the escort of a German soldier who was to take the prisoners to a Luftwaffe unit for
interrogation. While the escort with the prisoners was leaving, the captain had ordered that
the escort should not interfere if German civilians should molest the prisoners, adding that
they ought to be shot, or would be shot. This order had been given to the escort from the
steps of the barracks in a loud voice so that the crowd, which had gathered, could hear and
would know exactly what was going to take place. According to the summary given by the
United Nations War Crimes Commission:
way of this program of murder, albeit in a subordinate position and without success, would escape
punishment. That cannot be right.” (unofficial translation).
255
Trial of Erich Heyer and six others, British Military Court for the Trial of War Criminals, Essen, 18th -19 th
and 21st -22nd December, 1945, UNWCC, vol. I, p. 88, at p. 91.
Case No.: -94-1-A
15 July 1999