Essay on Actus Reas

Submitted By golbs
Words: 582
Pages: 3

Criminal Assignment one
Actus Reus is often described as the ‘guilty act’ of an offence but is more accurately described as the ‘physical element’ of the offence; as opposed to the ‘mental element,’ more commonly known as the ‘mens rea.’ The foundations of proving actus reas are found in the causation and omissions of liability of the act which need to be proven before proceeding to establishing the mens rea. I will attempt to establish relevant actus reas of Nicholas’ actions as he has been charged with the homicide of Rebecca, Darren and Delia as the mens rea of his offences has already been established.
Nicholas’ act of striking Rebbeca and killing her was done so whilst sleepwalking meaning that as Nicholas was unconscious while performing the act, he was not wilfully engaged in his motion. This would be fall into the defence of automatism which is an act that is not voluntary or willed; more specifically insane-automatism as the act was not caused by an external factor, but one from inside one’s own mind. Although Nicholas’ act fits in to the category of automatism, the most directly applicable case to the situation of his offence suggests a problem in using automatism as a defence, like in the case of R v Burgess1 where a man struck someone whilst sleepwalking, the defendant was refused a defence of automatism but was sentenced under ‘insanity.’ This may cause a problem in prosecution as he could not be considered guilty of his actions if they were not of his free will which he could use as a defence.
There was no break in chain of causation between assaulting Darren and his death caused by Nicholas making him liable using the ‘but for’ test established in R v White2 . This test is to argue whether or not the defendant’s actions were the ultimate cause of their offence. In this situation, had Nicholas not punched and thought he had killed Darren, he would not have tried to hide his body, in which doing so killed him, even though the act that he thought killed him didn’t. Either way, his actions caused Darren’s death which would cause little trouble with prosecution as Nicholas was awake whilst performing these actions voluntarily and wilfully.
Delia’s death was caused