Actus reus

Question 0

What are the 3 exceptions to the Act requirement?

Answer 0

1. Crimes of Omission
2. Crimes of Possession
3. Situational Crimes

Question 1

What is the Act requirement?

Answer 1

Proof of some form of prohibited conduct, usually some form of act.

• A bodily movement
• Can also be a failure to act; an omission
• both the bodily movement and/or the omission, failure to act must be voluntary

Question 2

Crimes of Omission

Answer 2

Failure to act as required by law

-fail to wear seatbelt

Question 3

Crimes of Possession

Answer 3

Possessing a prohibited article

-having a controlled substance (drugs)

Question 4

Situational Crimes

Answer 4

Being in a prohibited situation

-drunk in a public place

Question 5

What are the conditions of liability for a crime of commission in respect of an omission to act?

Answer 5

Liability depends on the reasonableness of expecting the defendant to come to the persons aid.

• a duty to prevent harm must be owed
• offence must be capable of commission by omission

Question 6

Duty to Act - Kenny’s outline

Answer 6

No one is held criminally responsible at common law for the harmful consequence of his omission to act, whether the omission was careless or intentional unless the prosecution can prove that he was under a legal obligation to take action in the particular circumstances in which he was placed.

Question 7

Under what circumstances could a duty to act arise?

Answer 7

• A duty to act under the criminal law
• A contractual duty
• A duty arising from a special relationship
• A duty arising from public office
• A duty arising from the voluntary assumption of responsibility
• A duty arising from the defendants creation of a dangerous situation

Question 8

What is the difference between an act and an omission?

Why does it matter?

Answer 8

Distinction between an act - doing something, and an omission - doing nothing is important as it can be the key to whether or not one is to be held criminally liable or not. The difference is created by context. As was the case in Airdale NHS Trust v Bland [1993]

Question 9

Acts and Omissions - House of Lords
Airdale NHS Trust v Bland [1993]
Patient is in vegetative state, kept alive by feeding tube
  - Would disconnecting tube be lawful?
  - Is disconnection an Act or Omission?

Answer 9

Act - it would unlawful, doctors would be liable for murder
Omission - lawful as docs duty of succour are not absolute. duty to intervene must serve interest of patient.

H of L’s held, it was an omission, no distinction was drawn between the case of no tube being insterted & the removal of such upon it being found futile.

Question 10

Voluntariness

Answer 10

Whether the prohibited conduct is an act or an omission, it must be voluntary on the part of the defendant.
Woolmington v DPP [1935] AC 462

Question 11

Bratty v Attorney General for Northern Ireland [1961] 3 ALL ER 523 HL

Answer 11

” no act is punishable if it done involuntarily; and an involuntary act in this context means an act which is done by the muscles without any control by the mind such as a spasm, a reflex action or a convulsion; or an act done by a person who is not conscious of what he is doing; ex done while sleep walking or suffering from concussion. - Lord Denning

Question 12

Automatism

Answer 12

circumstances where the defendant has no control over what he is doing is said to be acting in a state of automatism.
- Hill v Baxter [1958]
The D is attacked by a swarm of bees whilst driving his car. He looses control of the car and runs into something causing damage
Where a D responds to something with a spontaneous reflex action over which they have no control it may be classed as a state of automatism

Question 13

cases giving rise to a duty to act:

Answer 13

• Khan and Khan[1998]
• Singh
• Willoughby
• R v Evans

Question 14

Khan and Khan [1998]

Answer 14

Court of appeal allowed the D appeals against conviction for manslaughter - drug dealers gave victim heroine, V used heroine slipped into coma - D failed to call ambulance V died.

Question 15

Singh[1999]

Answer 15

COA held that question of whether a situation gives rise to a duty to act was for the judge to determine

Question 16

Willoughby

Answer 16

Rose LJ confirms that although there may be special where a duty exists; doctor/patient, the judge may direct the jury accordingly.
The question of whether there was a situation giving rise to a duty to act will be a question for the jury.

Question 17

R vEvans [2009]

Answer 17

Appellant gave her sister heroine. The Victim(sister) injected herself. Concerned that her sister may have taken too much she spent the night. She did not seek medical treatment and the victim died.

dismissing her appeal for conviction for Gross negligence manslaughter, the jury held;

‘for the purpose of gross negligence manslaughter, when a person had created or contributed to the creation of a state of affairs that he knew, or ought reasonable to have known, had become life threatening then normally, a duty to act by taking reasonable steps to save the other’s life would arise.’