Passed Jan 2024 SQE 1 first try (1st Quintile) using these notes. Summarises everything you need to know for Criminal Law and Practice, including the core knowledge of Criminal law.
Carefully curated summary notes, aligned precisely with SRA guidelines, comprehensive and also tailored to the speci...
Criminal Law and Practice
Table of Contents
Specified criminal offences:.......................................................................................................................1
Definition of the offence:..........................................................................................................................5
General defences:.....................................................................................................................................5
Partial defences:.......................................................................................................................................6
Parties:.....................................................................................................................................................7
Inchoate offences:....................................................................................................................................7
Rights of a suspect being detained by the police for questioning:..............................................................8
Identification procedures:.........................................................................................................................8
Advising a client, including vulnerable clients, whether to answer police questions:...............................10
Procedure for interviewing a suspect under PACE 1984:..........................................................................10
Bail applications:....................................................................................................................................11
First hearings before the magistrates’ court:...........................................................................................14
Plea before Venue:..................................................................................................................................15
Allocation of business between magistrates' court and Crown Court:......................................................16
Case management and pre-trial hearings:..............................................................................................17
Principles and procedures to admit and exclude evidence:......................................................................19
Trial procedure in magistrates’ court and Crown Court:..........................................................................25
Sentencing:.............................................................................................................................................29
Appeals procedure:.................................................................................................................................32
Youth court procedure:...........................................................................................................................34
Preliminary considerations for the use of the Welsh language in criminal proceedings...........................37
Core principles of criminal liability
Specified criminal offences:
Offences against the person:
Common assault: assault and battery
Assault
Actus reus: causing victim to apprehend immediate and unlawful personal violence
Mens rea: intention or recklessness
- Examples:
o Threats of violence only
o Victim anticipates violence but there is no actual touching
o Some words or physical movement from D would be sufficient
o Silence is sufficient in some circumstances
Battery
Actus reus: applying unlawful force to another
,Mens rea: intention or recklessness
- Defendant must make contact with the victim’s body and contact must be unlawful
- Contact can be:
o Direct
o Indirect (setting a dog on someone)
o Delayed (digging a hold for someone to fall into)
o By omission (accidentally running over someone’s foot then refusing to remove the car)
S. 47 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (ABH)
Actus reus: Assault (assault/battery) occasioning actual bodily harm
Mens rea: Mens rea for the assault/battery
- Any hurt or injury calculated to interfere with the health or comfort of the victim that is more than
merely trifling
o Examples: scratches, bruising, loss of consciousness, psychiatric injury
- Necessary mens rea is intent or recklessness
- Consent is generally not possible for ABH or GBH unless consent is:
o Expressed or implied in a legal manner
o Effective and the victim has the capacity, freedom and information to consent
o The action is within a legally recognised category (surgery, body modification, religious practice,
sport)
- Consent to running the risk of STDs are accepted provided there is full information
- Sadomasochistic practices involving serious violence will not be held as consent if there is a public
interest element
S. 20 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (GBH)
Actus reus: wounding or infliction of GBH
Mens rea: intention or recklessness as to the causing of some harm
- A wound must be an injury where both layers of the skin are broke
- Long periods of unconsciousness, broken bones and serious psychiatric injury can amount to GBH
S. 18 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (GBH with Intent)
Actus reus: wounding or causing GBH
Men rea: intention to cause GBH
Theft offences:
S. 1 Theft Act 1968 (Theft)
Actus reus: appropriate of property belonging to another
Mens rea: dishonesty, intention to permanently deprive
- Appropriation is any assumption of the rights of the owner
- Appropriate need not amount to theft without dishonest intent
- Property includes money and all other property including intangible property, land, personal property
- Property is rarely considered abandoned
- Dishonestly is not deemed if defendant believes:
o They have a legal right to the property
o The owner would’ve consented or
o The owner couldn’t be discovered following reasonable steps
S. 8 Theft Act 1968 (Robbery)
Actus reus: theft + force or threat of force on any person immediately before or at the time of stealing
Mens rea: mens rea of theft + intention to use force in order to steal
- There must be a theft or else there is no robber (but there could be burglary/assault)
,- Force includes causing or intending to cause the apprehension of force
- Force must occur before or at the time of the offence
- Force doesn’t require violence and can be applied through property
- D must seek to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force
o Person must fear for their own safety
S. 9 Theft Act 1968 (Burglary)
S. 9(1)(a) – Burglary before entry
Actus reus: enters building or part of a building as a trespasser
Mens rea: knowledge/recklessness as to entry as a trespasser + intending to commit theft/GBH/criminal
damage
- Crime is committed at time of entry
S. 9(1)(b) – Burglary after entry/once inside
Actus reus: enters building or party of a building as a trespasser + once inside, committed theft/attempted
theft/inflicting GBH/attempt to inflict GBH
Mens rea: knowledge/recklessness as to entry as a trespasser
- Does not require intent to be proven at the time of entry but that the defendant actually committed the
further offences once inside
S. 10 Theft Act 1968 (Aggravated Burglary)
1. Necessary to establish that a burglary under s 9(1)(a) or (b) has occurred
2. Defendant must have with them at the time of the burglary:
a. Firearms or imitation firearms
b. A weapon of offence
c. Explosives
- If relying on a s 9(1)(a) offence, defendant must have this article with them when entering the building
- If relying on s 9(1)(b) offence, defendant must have this article with them when committing the
theft/GBH (or attempt)
Criminal damage:
Simple criminal damage/arson
Actus reus: destroy or damage (by fire) property belonging to another without lawful excuse
Mens rea: intention or recklessness
- Whether property is damaged is a question of fact and degree
o Unnecessary to render the property useless
o Need not be permanent, only that time, effort and money is spent to restore the property
o Includes permanent or temporary impairment of value or usefulness
- Lawful excuses:
o Self-defence
o D honestly believes owner would have consented, even if mistaken due to voluntary intoxication
o D acting to protect property that D honestly believed was in immediate need of protection, with D
honestly believing that the means of protection were reasonable and the damage caused by D was
objectively capable of protecting the property
Aggravated criminal damage/arson
Actus reus: destroy or damage (by fire) property belonging to the defendant or another
Mens rea: intention or recklessness as to the destruction or damage of property AND as to the
endangerment of life by the damage or destruction
- No life need actually be endangered
- Damage intended to damage D was reckless to is the issue, not the amount of actual damage
- Danger to life must arise from the damaged property, not the means of damaging it
, - If damage is cause by fire (aggravated arson), risk to life will always be from the damaged property
Homicide:
Murder
Actus reus: unlawful killing of a human being under the Queen’s peace
Mens rea: intention to kill or cause GBH (serious harm)
- Foetus’ are not considered human beings for the purpose of murder
o Child destruction and procuring a miscarriage are separate offences
- Death occurs when the victim is medically brain dead
Voluntary manslaughter
- Occurs where mens rea and actus reus of murder are present but there are partial defences that reduce
the offence from murder to voluntary manslaughter:
o Diminishes responsibility
o Loss of control
Involuntary manslaughter
Unlawful Act Manslaughter
- D committed a criminal offence that carried an objective risk to the victim causing them to die
- The act must have been intentional, unlawful, dangerous and be the cause of death
o A positive act is required
- Both factual and legal causation must be proven
Gross Negligence Manslaughter
- D doesn’t commit an offence or knowingly take a risk but acts in a way that is extremely negligent to
the point they are criminally culpable for the victim’s death
- Defendant must owe the victim a duty of care that is breached and caused the victim’s death
- There must have been a serious and obvious risk of death so that a breach amounts to goss negligence
- The standard of care is that of a reasonable person under the same duty of care with the defendant’s
expertise
Fraud:
Fraud by false representation
Actus reus:
1. Express/implied representation
2. Representation as to fact/law/state of mind
Representation is untrue/misleading
Mens rea:
1. Mens rea for false statement
2. Dishonesty
a. What was defendant’s knowledge and belief as to the facts?
b. Given that knowledge and those beliefs, was the defendant dishonest by the standards of
ordinary decent people?
3. Intention to make a gain or cause a loss
Fraud by abuse of position
Actus reus:
1. D occupies a position which requires D to look after the victim’s financial wellbeing
2. D abuses that position (uses it incorrectly/put it to improper use)
Mens rea:
1. Dishonesty
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