Mens Rea Q1

Question 1

What is mens rea?

Answer 1

• This is the mental element or thinking part of a crime (guilty mind).
• Each crime has its own mens rea.
• All crimes require mens rea except strict liability offences.
• There are two main types of mens rea

Question 2

There are two main types of mens rea.

What are they?

Answer 2

Intention
-Direct or Oblique
Recklessness

Question 3

Intention

Answer 3

-This is subjective.
-Based on Ds state of mind and not what anyone else may have considered.
-There are two types of intention.
Direct and Oblique

Question 4

Direct intention

Answer 4

• Direct intent the highest level of mens rea
• D makes a decision to bring about a certain consequence.
• It is D’s aim, objective and purpose to bring about the prohibited consequence

Question 5

Case for direct intention

Answer 5

Mohan – when D decided to turn and accelerate towards V, it was his aim
objective and purpose ‘to drive to cause some harm’ satisfying direct
intention.
-D’s motive is irrelevant.

Question 6

Oblique Intention

-With cases

Answer 6

-Oblique Intent: It does not mean D had desired the result but it is a virtual
certainty of his actions
-Subjective test established in Nedrick – The outcome must be virtually
certain and D must realise/ appreciates this.
- Nedrick – not V.C. that V would die in the fire, so oblique intention was not
satisfied.
-Test was approved in Woollin: D threw his baby against the wall and it died.
The House of Lords were not convinced that D knew serious injuries were V.C. when he threw his infant towards the pram. Did not satisfy oblique intention.

Question 7

Recklessness

Answer 7

• This is a lower level of mens rea.
• It is subjective because D is tested against what he foresaw and not whether another person would realise the risk.
• The test - D foresaw an unjustifiable risk but took it anyway (Cunningham).

Question 8

Case for recklessness

Answer 8

Cunningham: D broke into his gas meter to steal money from it but as a result, caused gas to leak into his neighbour’s flat. D was not guilty of administering a noxious substance because he did not foresee the risk of gas leaking from the meter.

Question 9

EXTRA POINTS THAT COULD BE MADE

Answer 9

• Previously there were two types of recklessness: objective and subjective.
• Objective recklessness was abolished in R v G&R so now there is only subjective recklessness.