Intention

Intention

The highest level of mens rea
1. It is the basis of many crimes
  1. E.G in murder you have the intent to kill or cause GBH
there are 2 types
1. Direct
  1. Signifies that the defendant has a clear desire to achieve a specific purpose
  2. To prove that the person had the direct intent the judge has to prove that beyond reasonable doubt he wished to achieve the actus reus of a crime
  3. Defined in Mohan 1976 as the defendants aim or puropose
  4. an example of direct intent is theft
    1. its the mens rea to permanently deprive another of property
2. Oblique
  1. Can be found if the aim or purpose is said to be something diferent to the result
    1. eg to frighten rather that kill
      1. E.G Nedrick
        Nedrick established the virtually certain test
        The virtually certain test was whether or not 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 had indeed intended to cause death or GBH
        Woollin approved of this test with a few important changes
        He changed 'infer' to 'find'
        Confusingly in the same judgement said
        If it was virtually certain and there was evidence of this then it was intent!!
        But in the same judgement said it was evidence of intent
        RvG later said it should be evidence of intent

Resource summary

	Created by hayley over 11 years ago