Mens rea

Mens rea

It means the guilty mind
1. It is the necessary mental element of an offence
There are 2 main types
1. Intention
  1. This is the worst form of mens rea
  2. It is the basis of many crimes
  3. 2 main types of intention
    1. Direct
      1. Mohan defined direct intent as the defendants aim or purpose
    2. Oblique
      1. Oblique is found if the aim or purpose are said to be something different to the result
        E.G to frighten rather than kill
        E.G Nedrick
        Nedrick established the virtuallly certain test
        This established whether death or GBH were virtually certain to occur
        If so was the defendant aware of this?
        If so the jury can infer that the defendant intended to cause death or GBH
        Woollin confimed this test with a few important changes
        Changed 'infer' to 'find'
        Confusingly said
        If it was virtually certain and there was evidence of this then it was intention! HOWEVER...
        In the same judgement they also state it was evidence of intent
        Matthews and Allgu have since stated that it was evidence of intent
2. Recklessness
  1. Cunningham recklessness is a lower level mes rea to intention
    1. Cunningham recklessness was later confirmed in RvG
      1. It states that Cunningham recklessness is now applied to all cases of recklessness
  2. Recklessness is the taking of an unjustified risk that the defendant was aware of
    1. This is illustrated in the cases of
      1. Savage and Latimer
        In Savage was the women aware of the risk when she threw the drink?
Some offences have their own mens rea
1. E.G theft has the mens rea of the dishonest state of mind
  1. GHOSH

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