crimian law week 5: intention

What is mens rea

The mental element required for an offence, such as intention or recklessness.

What is direct intent

D acts with the purpose of bringing about a result.

What is oblique intention? And what case provides the leading direction.

A result is not D’s aim, but is virtually certain to follow, and D appreciates this. The jury may find intent. R v Woollin 1998.

What wording did Woolin change in the nedrick direction.

replaced inferred intention to find intention.

What did Mathews and Alleyne [2003] clarify?

Foresight of virtual certainty is evidence from which intention may be found, rather than an automatic legal definition of intention.

What happened in Shankland and Hancock in 1986? And what was their reasoning and charge?

Striking minors dropped a concrete block from a bridge onto a road, accidentally killing a taxi driver. The House of Lords ruled that the jury were originally wrongfully directed in terms of intent to cause death.