ABSTRACT

Lord Simon of Glaisdale (at p 216): By crimes of basic intent I mean those crimes whose definition expresses (or, more often, applies) a mens rea which does not go beyond the actus reus. The actus reus generally consists of an act and some consequence. The consequence may be closely connected with the act or remotely connected with it: but with a crime of basic intent the mens rea does not extend beyond the act and its consequence, however, remote, as defined in the actus reus.

Widgery LJ: ... Both the defendant and the victim were addicted to drugs, and on the evening of 16 September 1967, both took a quantity of a drug known as LSD. Early on the morning of 18 September, the defendant, who is a United States citizen, hurriedly booked out of his hotel and left the country. On the following day, 19 September, the victim’s landlord found her dead in her room. She had suffered two blows on the head causing haemorrhage of the brain, but she had died of asphyxia as a result of some eight inches of sheet having been crammed into her mouth.