Actus Reus

Question 1

fill in the blank

👉🏽A person can be guilty of a crime as a ….. and as a …..

Answer 1

👉🏽A person can be guilty of a crime as a perpetrator and as a an accomplice

Question 2

what is a perpetrator?

Answer 2

a perpetrator is either
[i] engaged in/causing the AR of a crime + mens rea
[ii] employed an innocent agent to engage in/cause the AR of a crime

Question 3

Types of Actus Reus

Answer 3

• conduct
• circumstance
• result

Question 4

There are 2 ways that a person can be liability on omission - how?

Answer 4

1. where the actus reus is defined by law as including an omission
2. where the omission is a breach of their legal duty to act a certain way

Question 5

List the different types of breaches of legal duty as an omission

Answer 5

• blood relationships - R v Gibbons
• voluntary assumption of responsibility
• the miller principle
• contract
• discontinuation of life support

Question 6

What is significant about the R v Pittwood [1902]?

Answer 6

• a duty to act can derive from a contract
• X was in charge of railway cross gate
• left it open and killed a number of people
  Wright j rejected the argument that X owed a duty to his employer ONLY that he was contracted with

Question 7

Discuss the Miller case.

Answer 7

• slept on a mattress
• mattress is smouldering and went to next door room
  guilty of arson

[i] if X creates a danger even accidently
[ii] after, becmoes aware of it
[iii] he is under a duty to prevent the danger from materialising

Question 8

R v Paine, The Times, Feb 25, 1980 - what quote emanated from this case?

Answer 8

“I am under no legal obligation to protect a stranger”

Question 9

The People [DPP] v Bartley unrep june 1997, Carney J

Answer 9

• X committed sexual offenses against his step-sister
• she told the guards who replied ‘well, did you not enjoy it? did you not feel good about all the fondling and what your brother was doing?
• a failure to carry out this duty vigorously constitutes illegality on the guards part and renders him liable on indictment

Question 10

R v Stone and anor [1977] - discuss

Answer 10

voluntary assumption of responsibility

Question 11

types of circumstance offenses

Answer 11

rape
theft

why? because absence of consent

Question 12

differentiate between factual and legal causation

Answer 12

factual causation = the prosecution must prove that BUT FOR xxx conduct, yyy would not have occurred

legal causation = the prosecution must prove that there was an unbroke chain of causation between xx conduct ad the result in question 👉🏽 it can be broken by novus actus interveniens

Question 13

Discuss Dunne v DPP [2016] IESC 24

Answer 13

SC held that so long as the decision is taken in line with accepted medical practice or pursuant to an order of the court then turning off life support does not constitute novus actus interveniens

Question 14

N.A.I according to O’Malley 2016?

Answer 14

“an n.a.i is something that is s independent of the act of the accused that it should be regarded in law as the cause of death

Question 15

Discuss The People [DPP] v Dunne [2014] IECCA 29

Answer 15

“the decisions made in respect of the treatment of the deceased which were accepted to be lawful and proper are not such as to completely break the connection… between the shooting and the deceaseds’ death’.

Question 16

Why is People [AG] v McGrath (1960|0 important?

Answer 16

body left unconscious at the side of the road - put into passer-by car and driven to hospital where diagnosed wiht internal bleeding.
n a i ??
“any suhc interference was admittedly a humane and well intentioned act, brought about by the wrongful act of the applicant, far from being a new act negativing causation or cutting the chain of causation between the blow struck and the death”

Question 17

The People (DPP) v Davis

Answer 17

• savage beating of GF
• Argued that she fell under her own accord thus NAI
• Hardiman J - “…it is sufficient if the injuries caused by the applicant were related to the death in more than minimal way”