5 Mens Rea Coincidence

Mens Rea - Coincidence Elements of Criminal Liability
The Law Bank

Elements of Criminal Liability
Coincidence of mens rea and actus reus
1
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Objectives
Identify the circumstances where there is
coincidence of actus reus and mens rea

Describe the cases involving continuing acts

Apply the concept of coincidence to problem
questions
2
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Starter which of these creates criminal liability and why?
3
Crime A Crime B
Time Line Time Line
D stabs his
friend to death
during an
argument
D does so
intending to
kill him
D stabs V during an
argument and
leaves the house.
This triggers a
dormant ailment
and he dies five
minutes later
Not realising V is
dead, Ds anger
grows and returns
home and stabs V
through the duvet
intending to kill
him
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Starter which of these creates criminal liability?
4
Time Line Time Line
ACTUS
REUS
MENS
REA
ACTUS
REUS
MENS
REA
Crime A - liability Crime B no liability
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Background
The two elements must coincide
Guilty mind at the same time the act is committed
Also called contemporaneity
Problems is there is a time lapse
Actus reus before Mens rea
Mens rea before Actus reus
Courts have modified the rule to make sure a series
of linked acts or omissions can be treated as a
single continuing act
5
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Actus reus before mens rea
Defendant completes act before he forms state
of mind
Two ways that courts have constructed offences
in these cases
Treating as a continuing act (Fagan)
Basing liability on failure to act after creating a
dangerous situation (Miller)
6
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7
Fagan v Metropolitan Police Commissioner (1969) 3 All ER 442, DC
D accidently stopped his car on a policemans foot but then refused to move when he
realised this. He appealed against his conviction for assaulting a police officer in the
execution of his duty on the basis that at the time of the actus reus (when his car made
contact with the policemans foot) he had no mens rea (because it was accidental) and by
the time he formed mens rea (refusing to move) there was no act upon which to base
liability (he merely refused to undo that which had already been done)

Principle It was held that the actus reus of assault (in the sense of a battery) came
into being when contact was first made between the car and the policemans foot. This
actus reus continued for the whole time that the car remained on the foot, only ending
when the car was moved. At the point in time that the defendant became aware of the
contact and refused to move, he developed the requisite mens rea and liability was
complete.

Guilty
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R v Miller (1983) 2 All ER 427
8
D a vagrant was sleeping in a building, and fell asleep on his mattress. When he woke
up, he saw that his cigarette had caused the mattress to smoulder. Instead of calling for
help, just moved into another room. The fire flared up and spread.

Principle He was convicted of arson, not for starting the fire but for failing to do
anything about it.Lord Diplock:"...I see no rational ground for excluding from conduct
capable of giving rise to criminal liability, conduct which consists of failing to take
measures that lie within one's power to counteract a danger that one has oneself created,
if at the time of such conduct one's state of mind is such as constitutes a necessary
ingredient of the offence. I venture to think that the habit of lawyers to talk of "actus reus,"
suggestive as it is of action rather than inaction, is responsible for any erroneous notion
that failure to act cannot give rise to criminal liability in English law."

Guilty of arson (criminal damage by fire)
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Complete the time line for Fagan
Time Line
ACTUS
REUS
MENS
REA
The Law Bank
Complete the time line for Fagan
Time Line
Defendant drives car
onto policemans
foot

ACTUS
REUS

Actus reus

continues until
contact ceases

D is unaware that his
car has made
contact with the
policemans foot. No
liability at this point.

D becomes aware of
the situation but
refuses to move.
Mens rea arises and
coincides with actus
reus. Liability
MENS
REA
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You know the facts for Miller try and complete his timeline
Time Line
ACTUS
REUS

MENS
REA
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You know the facts for Miller try and complete his timeline
Time Line
Defendant drops a
cigarette onto a
mattress in a
derelict house

ACTUS
REUS

Mattress smoulders. The
defendant awakes but
does nothing to put out
the fire. The actus reus is
fulfilled by his failure to
act when he had a duty to
do so.

D is unaware of this
as he is asleep

Defendant awakes
and notices that the
mattress is burning

MENS
REA
The Law Bank
Mens rea before actus reus
Fagan or Miller cannot deal with this set of
circumstances
For this the court took the SINGLE
TRANSACTION view
A defendant cannot have the intention to kill if he
believes the person is already dead
13
The Law Bank
14
Thabo Meil (1954) 1 All ER 373, PC (South Africa)
D and accomplices took V to a hut and beat him over the head intending to kill him. They rolled his
body over a cliff to make the death appear accidental. In fact, the victim survived both the beating and
the fall from the cliff, but died from exposure shortly afterwards.

Principle Actus and mens were present throughout; no need to separate them, there was a
causal link. Where the actus reus consists of a series of linked acts, it is enough that the mens rea
existed at some time during that series, even if not necessarily at the time of the particular act which
caused the death.

Lord Reid:
"[It is] ... impossible to divide up what was really one series of acts in this way. There is no doubt that
the accused set out to do all these acts in order to achieve their plan, and as parts of their plan; and it
is much too refined a ground of judgment to say that, because they were under a misapprehension at
one stage and thought that their guilty purpose had been achieved before, in fact, it was achieved,
therefore they are to escape the penalties of the law.

Guilty of murder
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15
Church (1966) 2 All ER 72
D took V (a married woman) to a van for sexual purposes. V mocked D and slapped him D knocked V
unconscious. Unable to revive her he panicked and threw her into a river. V drowned.

Principle A defendant will be liable if the entire incident viewed as a whole could be viewed as a
series of events designed to cause death or GBH. The elements of the offence will be satisfied
provided the actus reus and mens rea occur somewhere during a single transaction.

Edmund Davies:
'an unlawful act causing the death of another cannot, simply because it is an unlawful act, render a
manslaughter verdict inevitable. For such a verdict inexorably to follow, the unlawful act must be such
as all sober and reasonable people would inevitably recognise must subject the other person to, at
least, the risk of some harm resulting therefrom, albeit not serious harm.'

A grosser case of criminal negligence it would be difficult to imagine.

Guilty of manslaughter.

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What is the difference?
Can you spot the difference between Meli and
Church?

Clue: it has to do with one of the elements of
criminal liability
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Objectives
Identify what is meant by the term recklessness
in criminal law

Identify the key case law that covers criminal
recklessness

Describe the difference between specific and
basic intent crimes
17
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Plenary - Complete the time line for Church
Time Line
ACTUS
REUS
MENS
REA
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Complete the time line for Church
Time Line
Defendant attacks
victim. She does not
die. No actus reus of
murder
ACTUS
REUS
Defendant throws
unconscious woman into
river to dispose of the
body. As a result, the
victim drowned thus
fulfilling the actus reus of
murder
Defendant intends
to cause GBH thus
satisfying the mens
rea of murder
Defendant did not intend
to kill the victim at this
point as he believed she
was already dead. It was
held that he was liable as
the whole incident was a
series of events designed
to cause death
MENS
REA

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Mens Rea - Coincidence Elements of Criminal Liability

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