Agus Liability After Sophia's Murder

The first scenario the question is based on Angus’ liability for murder after Sophia’s death due to his actions. The issue lies in whether the elements of murder, actus reus (AR) and mens rea (MR), are both present at the time of Sofia’s death allowing Angus to be liable for murder.
The actus reus is the external element of the offence, it is obtained through factual causation and legal causation. The test for factual causation was created in White where the judge referred to Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, ‘acts which would constitute its actual commission if it were not interrupted’ this implies that the test is ‘but for’ the defendants actions would the victim be alive. The second stage of AR is the legal causation means that the defendants actions do not have to be the main nor sole cause of the death but can be ‘an operating cause and a substantial cause’ of …show more content…
The word intention can be divided into direct intention, where you desired the outcome, or oblique intention. Oblique intention is a subjective test that sees whether the outcome was inevitable as seen in Nedrick and Woollin where the House of Lords introduced the notion that ‘death or serious bodily harm[SBH] had been a virtual certainty’ . The use of ‘Virtual certainty’ is implies that a defendant ‘foresaw what a reasonable person in his position would have foreseen’ with the outcome of his actions, ‘even though he did not desire it’ . Applying the precedent set in Maloney and Cunningham to Angus situation we can see that he has the mens rea for murder as although he did not intent to ‘kill or do serious harm’ to Sophia, it was a ‘death or serious injury was a virtually certain consequence’ of Angus’ actions. Thus, Angus has the mens rea for oblique