Mens Rea

• Mens rea - guilty mind

  • 'no act is punishable unless it is performed with a criminal mind'
• 3 levels of Mens Rea:

  1. Intention
  2. Recklessness
  3. Negligence
• Intention:

  R v Mohan - 'a decision to bring about, in so far as it lies within the accused's power, the prohibited consequence. no matter whether the accused desired that consequence or not'

  • 2 ways to show intention: direct intent, indirect (oblique) intent
• Direct Intent:

  • situations in which a defendant will desire a specific set of circumstances or a particular outcome to occur
  • aim/wish
  • R v Mohan - accelerated towards police officer, officer jumped out of way and d drove off
• Indirect (Oblique) Intent:

  • wishes to achieve an outcome but as a consequence of this, death or serious bodily harm is a virtual certainty and d appreciates this
  • R v Woollin - lost temper with 3 month old son, threw him against a wall, charged with murder and appealed, appealed that he did not actually intend to kill him, death or serious injury was a virtual certainty
• Recklessness:

  • subjective recklessness - d knows there is a risk but carries on regardless with their course of actions, need only to have a small awareness of the risk
  • R v Cunningham - ruptured a pipe causing gas to to leak into property next door and v was taken ill, not guilty
  • R v R and G - subjective, not guilty of arson as not been reckless, unable to appreciate the risk due to their immaturity
• Negligence:

  • whether d's conduct fell below the standards of the reasonable person - objective
  • R v Adomako - specialised breathing equipment became loose, failed to notice, d went into coma and died 6 months later, guilty