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Date Submitted: 10/27/2015 12:30 PM
Discuss the current role of strict liability offences in the English legal system? 50 marks
A strict liability offence is an offence that doesn’t require any men’s rea, only voluntary actus reus , however there is an exception to this known as absolute liability , absolute liability doesn’t require any men’s rea or voluntary actus reus , this is also known as a state of affairs crime. A case example for absolute liability is Larsonneur 1993 were the defendant , who was from France , had been ordered to leave the UK , she then decided to go to Southern Ireland , but the Irish police deported her back and took her in police custody back to the UK, where she was put in a cell in Holyhead police station. She didn’t want to go to the UK, meaning she had no men’s rea , and her act was not voluntary , she was then found guilty under the aliens order 1920. Another example of a case to support this is Winzar v CCOK 1983, were the defendant was taken to hospital on a stretcher, but when he was examined by doctors they found he was not ill but was drunk. The defendant was then told to leave the hospital, but was later found slumped on a seat in the corridor. The police were called and they took the defendant to the roadside outside the hospital. He was then found guilty of being drunk on a highway due to s12 if the licensing act 1872. The divisional court upheld his conviction.
Strict liability offences are created by statute in acts of parliament, and are usually summary offences held in the magistrates court, with the punishment usually being fines , however sexual offences under strict liability are tried in the crown court and inditable offences and can carry a prison sentence for example B V DDP 2000 , were the defendant a 15 year old boy , asked a 13 year old girl to give him a ‘shiner’ on the bus, he believed the girl was over the age of 14 and was later charged with inciting a child under the age of 14 to commit a gross indency under section 1 of the indency with...