ABSTRACT
The Court of Criminal Appeal, quashing his conviction on the grounds of lack of intent, adopted a narrow interpretation of that concept, effectively limiting it to aim or purpose. In 1969, the Law Commission was working on proposals to reform the law of property damage. In its final Report on Criminal Damage, it recommended the replacement of the Malicious Damage Act with what became the Criminal Damage Act 1971. In both the Draft Criminal Code and the Draft Criminal Law Bill the Commission defined ‘recklessness’ in a subjective sense. Intention is the highest form of mens rea state and is an essential element of crimes such as murder, wounding or causing GBH with intent, robbery and theft. Different crimes have different mens rea states. Negligence is used as a mens rea state in rape and certain other sexual offences while ‘gross’ negligence is the mens rea state for one form of manslaughter.
