actus reus

Question 1

What is actus reus?

Answer 1

The physical element or the prohibited conduct of a crime. It can be a positive act, omission or state of affairs, Must be voluntary.

Question 2

What is said in hill v baxter 1958?

Answer 2

Court gave examples of where a driver of a vehicle could not be doing the act of driving voluntarily: lost control of a vehicle because he was stung by a swarm of bees, or if he was struck of the head by a stone, had a heart attack while driving.

Question 3

What case shows that a person who pushes a second causing them to crash into someone. Even tho hit the third person 2nd hasn’t committed actus reus?

Answer 3

R v Mitchell 1983

Question 4

What case shows a defendant being convicted s even tho they didn’t act voluntarily?

Answer 4

R v Larsonneur 1933

Question 5

An omission is only sufficient for the actus reus where there is a duty to act, what ways in which such a duty can exist?

Answer 5

• a statutory duty
• a contractual duty
• a duty because of a relationship
• a duty which has been taken on voluntarily
• a duty through ones official position
• a duty which arises because the defendant has set in a motion a chain of events

Question 6

Name an example a statutory duty created

Answer 6

s170 of the road traffic act 1988 failing to stop or report a road traffic accident

Question 7

Name a case that deals with a contractual duty

Answer 7

R v Pittwood 1902

railway crossing keeper didn’t shut the gates and it killed someone

Question 8

Name a case that deals with a duty because of a relationship

Answer 8

R v Gibbons and Proctor 1918

Father and his partner deliberately starved his daughter to death. parent child duty

Question 9

Name two cases that show a duty which has been undertaken voluntarily

Answer 9

• R v Stone and Dobinson 1977 failed their duty to help her or summon help
• R v Evans d ought to have known have known that what she created was life threatening and therefore owe a duty of care

Question 10

Name a case that involves a duty through ones official position

Answer 10

R v Dytham 1979

Police officer on duty took no steps to intervene in a fight

Question 11

Name a case where a duty arises because the defendant set in a motion a chain of events

Answer 11

R v Miller 1983

Didn’t take reasonable steps to deal with a fire that he discovered

Question 12

What does airedale nhs trust v bland 1993 show?

Answer 12

That if discontinuance of treatment is in the best interests of the patient then it is not an omission which can form actus reus.

Question 13

What was shown in R v Khan and Khan 1998?

Answer 13

The court of appeal thought there could be a duty to summon medical assistance in certain circumstances, so that a defendant could be liable for failing to do so.

Question 14

How can you test factual causation?

Answer 14

The ‘but for test’ from white 1910

Question 15

What makes up legal causation?

Answer 15

• operative

- substantial

Question 16

What is the operative cause?

Answer 16

• D is not necessarily the sole or main cause but ‘a’ cause.

- Pagett 1983

Question 17

What is the substantial cause?

Answer 17

• More than a slight or trifling link in the sense that … in the sense that it is not de minimis
• R v Hughes 2013

Question 18

What happens if there may be more than one person who contributed?

Answer 18

• The defendant can be guilty even though their conduct was not the only cause of the death
• In Kimsey both drivers were driving at high speed, but Kimsey could be found guilty

Question 19

What is the thin skull rule?

Answer 19

• The defendant must take the victim as she/he finds their victim.
• This means that if the victim has something unusual about their physical or mental state which makes an injury more serious injury, then the defendant is liable for a more serious injury.

Question 20

What case is an example of the thin skull rule?

Answer 20

R v Blaue 1975

She died as she refused a blood transfusion due to being a Jehovah’s Witness

Question 21

Explain the chain of causation and linked to intervening acts

Answer 21

• must be a direct link from the defendant’s conduct to the consequence
• in some situations something happens after the defendants act or omission and if this is sufficiently separate from the defendants conduct it may break the chain of causation.

Question 22

The chain of causation can be broken by:

Answer 22

• an act of a third party
• the victims own act
• a natural but unpredictable event

Question 23

In order to break the chain of causation for the defendant to not be liable what needs to happen?

Answer 23

The intervening act must be sufficiently independent of the defendants conduct and sufficiently serious.