Monday 27th October 2008

I only had the one seminar today, no lectures. It was with Tony Colombo for 101CRM, Introducing Criminology. We firstly talked about the meaning of some legal terms, like summary offences, indictable, and either way. We also found out what actus reus means (guilty act) and mens rea (which is guilty mind). You can be prosecuted for actus reus alone, and you do not have to have meant to do it. For example, a speeding fine, the actus reus is there (you broke the speed limit) but you may not have meant to (mens rea).

We then looked at a criminal case. A guy called mike had gone out, got drunk, and decided to kill his partner who he was convinced was having an affair. He caused come damage in the pub, took a bottle of whiskey, watched someone get beaten up and also had to be pulled off of the bar maid. When he got home, he got a knife, and threw it at the shadow in the house believing this to be his partner. In the morning he got arrested for stabbing his daughter to death. He was charged with a series of offences and we had to decide if we thought he would be found guilty in a court of law.
The charges included:
· Criminal damage in the bathroom of the pub,
· Sexual assault of the bare maid,
· Theft of the bottle of whiskey,
· The murder of his partner who was strangled to death,
· The murder of his 2 year old daughter,
· GBH of the guy who he watched get beaten up.

At the end of the seminar we discussed the outcome of the case. The criminal damage, he could have said that he was drunk and needed to use the support of the pipe to stay up. The sexual assault was only meant as friendly flirting, he did steal the whiskey, and there was no evidence that he killed his partner. He did kill his daughter but didn’t mean to kill her. He meant to kill his partner. This is a good example of actus reus. The guilty act was there and there is no need for the mens rea. The GBH, we decided that is it morally wrong to sit back and watch someone get their head kicked in. its now however against the law. You can not be prosecuted for walking away or even watching. There are exceptions, these include if children are involved, and if there is a car accident. You can not walk away from a car accident.