men’s rea

• Transferred malice


  The defendant can be guilty if he or she intended to commit a similar crime but against a different victim.
• Transferred malice


  • Aiming a blow at one person with the necessary mens rea for an assault causing actual bodily harm, but actually hitting another person. This occurred in Latimer (1886).
• Latimer (1886)


  D aimed a blow with a belt at a man in a pub because that man had attacked him. The belt bounced off the man and struck a woman in the face. D was guilty of an assault against the woman, although he had not meant to hit her.
• Where the mens rea is for a completely different type of offence, then the defendant may not be guilty.