Criminal

A voluntary and deliberate act - cannot be an omission unless there was a duty to act.

• 1. Contractual Pittwood
• 2. Public position Dytham
• 3. Act of Parliament Children and Young Persons Act 1933
• 4. Duty of Relationship Gibbons and Procter
• 5. Failure to minimise harmful consequences Miller
• 6. Voluntarily takes on a duty Stone and Dobinson

Causation is the link between the defendant's act and the criminal consequence.

• "But for" test
• White
• Pagett

• Where the act is the "operating" and "substantial" cause of the consequence.
• Smith
• Jordan

• 1. Novus Actus Interveniens
• 2. Egg Shell Skull Rule
• 3. Victim's Own Act

• Where an intervening act breaks the chain of causation.
• Cheshire
• Malcherek

• "Take your victim as you find him"
• Blaue

• The victim's reaction does not break the chain of causation if it was reasonably forseeable.
• Roberts

"Guilty mind" - Most crimes require the mens rea as well as the actus reus. It can be intention as defined in Mowatt or recklessness as defined in Cunningham.

• 1. Direct Intention
• 2. Indirect Intention (Oblique Intention)

Where the consequences are the defendant's aim or purpose.

• Where the defendant intended the act but not the consequence.
• Woollin

• The Virtual Certainty Test.
• 1. The consequence is a virtually certain result of the defendant's act.
• 2. The defendant knows it is a virtually certain result.
• - this test allows intention to be inferred

• Recklessness requires a lower level of mens rea. Where the defendant knows there is a risk of criminal consequences and:
• a) is willing to take it and
• b) takes it deliberately.
• This requires no ill will
• Cunningham

• This refers to the coincidence of Actus Reus and Mens Rea.
• The AR and MR must occur at the same time.
• However, a series of linked acts/omissions can be treated as a single continuing act.
• Fagan
• Church

• Where the defendant's Mens Rea is transferred from the intended victim to the actual victim.
• Mitchell

• Where a crime includes AR but no MR - therefore, performing the act is what makes the defendant guilty.
• Alphacell v Woodward