ABSTRACT
Imagine you are standing in a queue at your bank. Suddenly, armed robbers burst into the bank, waving guns around and shouting at everyone to get down on the floor and shut up. One of them then comes over to you – it’s obviously not your lucky day – and tells you to help them fill their bags with cash. There is a gun pointed at your head. What do you do? Of course, if you don’t pass out, you do exactly as you’re told. Five minutes later the robbers have gone and it’s all over. Or is it? What if the police decide to charge you with participating in a robbery? After all, without your help, the robbers might not have succeeded. Well, relax: there is a defence ready and waiting: duress. With duress, D claims that, although they committed the actus reus of the offence, with mens rea, they did so only because they had no effective choice, being faced with threats of serious injury or death, or with similar threats against others close to them.
