What is the standard for determining whether a person can be found to have committed acts of cruelty against another person?

There is no objective standard in the sense that certain conduct will constitute cruelty in every case while other conduct will not. What has to be determined is the effect on a particular person of certain conduct or acts, rather than the nature of the acts committed. As Willmer, L.J. said in Windeatt v. Windeatt (No. 2) [1963] P 25, [1962] 2 WLR 1056, at 1065, [1962] 1 All ER 776: “ * * * It must be judged what the impact of the conduct complained of, viewed as a whole, was on the personality of the complaining party. In those circumstances, as I have already said, the question of cruelty or not cruelty is not to be decided merely by reference to other decisions reported in the law reports. It is, as I see it, a question of fact and degree depending on the circumstances of the individual case.”