Within the
English legal system there are a variety of
categories of
assault: one of the more serious is classed
in
legal terms as "Grievous Bodily Harm".
Lesser charges include
actual bodily harm and
assault, although
charges are often combined.
To be convicted of an
assault occasioning GBH it would be expected that the victim suffered
"serious" injury: that is, something which drew blood or resulted
in broken bones, although the Law leaves something to a judge or
magistrate's discretion.
An important test case occurred in 1994 when a man who had been
stalking a woman was convicted of GBH due to the
mental distress he'd caused her. Until that case there was no
provision in English Law for mental injury to fall under the same
jurisdictions as bodily injury.