Evolution of the Offence Flashcards
Mens Rea
The guilty mind or knowledge. Intention or recklessness.
Stages of intent
Intentional, Recklessness, Knowledge, Negligence.
Intent
In a criminal law context there are two specific types of intention in an offence: Firstly there must be an intention to commit the act and secondly an intention to get a specific result.
R v Collister
Circumstantial evidence from which an offender’s intent may be inferred can include: the offender’s actions and words before, during and after the event. The surrounding circumstances and the nature or the act itself.
Deliberate Act
“Intent” Means there act or omission must be done deliberately. The act or omission must be more than involuntary or accidental.
Actus Reus
The state of affairs (act/s or omissions). The actual offence.
Conspiracy
Two or more subjects forming an agreement to do an unlawful act.
Knowledge
Offences are sometimes defined as to require the accused to have a particular knowledge. An accused is said to “know” something when he or she has ascertained, by physical or mental perception a state of facts or circumstances which creates in his or her mind a certainty that the point of the accused’s inquiry is free from doubt.
At common law “Knowing” sometimes include:
believing something to be the case.
Secondary Party
Assistance with the offence. Not necessarily commit the offence.
Contemporaneousness
The actus Reus and Mens Rea must occur at the same time or within a reasonable nexus of each other.
R v Sanders
A conspiracy does not end with making the agreement it continues until the commission of the offence or other means where the agreement is discharged.
Mulcahy v R
Two or more subjects forming an agreement to do an unlawful act.
What you need to prove in parties -
Identity of defendant
An offence has actually occurred
Elements of the offence have been satisfied.
Three conditions for an ‘Attempt’
intent (mens rea), act (actus rea), proximity.
R v White
A suspect can still be convicted if he conspires with unknown parties.
R v Harpur
The court is permitted to focus more on the quality of the defendants acts and the time. Place and circumstances in which they occurred.
Principal Party
Satisfies the actus rea and mens rea on the offence.
Elements to prove attempts -
Intended to commit and offence, and
Did, or omitted to do something to achieve that end.
Accessory after the fact
knowing any person to have committed an offence, receives, comfortis, assists that person or tampers with or actively suppresses evidence against him, in order to enable him or her to escape after arrest or to avoid arrest/conviction.
Party
Party - Participation must have occurred before or during the commission of the offence.
R v Mane
to be considered an accessory the acts done by the person must be after the offence has been committed.
R v Crooks
knowledge means actual knowledge or belief in the sense of having no real doubt that person assisted commit an offence.
Innocent agent
when employed by the accessory, actions fall on the accessory.
R v Briggs
knowledge may also be inferred from wilful blindness or a deliberate abstention from making inquiries that would confirm truth.
