ABSTRACT
As we have seen, the prosecution will normally have to establish that an accused has carried out the prohibited criminal act (actus reus) with the accompanying ‘guilty mind’ (mens rea). This sounds fair enough. After all, it is essentially the state of mind of an accused that marks his behaviour out as ‘criminal’ and is reflected appropriately in the sentence. For example, intentionally causing serious harm is a far more serious offence than recklessly (maliciously) causing serious harm since the harm is actually intended rather than simply being risked. The convicted criminal is likely to be given a heavier sentence as a result and we can see that this can be justified. It will, however, come as little surprise to learn that there are one or two exceptions to this general rule.
