{"id":5014,"date":"2018-03-07T09:26:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-07T09:26:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2021-09-30T11:55:53","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T11:55:53","slug":"r-v-nedrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lawteacher.net\/cases\/r-v-nedrick.php","title":{"rendered":"R v Nedrick – 1986"},"content":{"rendered":"Legal Case Brief<\/h2>\n
R v Nedrick [1986] 1 WLR 102<\/strong><\/p>\nMurder \u2013 Mens Rea \u2013 Foresight \u2013 Intention \u2013 Inferred Intent<\/p>\n
Facts<\/h3>\n
The defendant Nedrick held a grudge against a woman.\u00a0 In the middle of the night he drove to her house before pouring petrol through her letter box and igniting it. The defendant, without warning anyone in the house then drove home.\u00a0 As a result of the fire a child died and Nedrick was charged with murder.\u00a0\u00a0 The trial judge directed the jury that if the defendant knew it was highly probable that the act would result in serious bodily harm to someone, even if he did not desire that result, he would be guilty of murder.\u00a0 Nedrick was convicted of murder and appealed.<\/p>\n
Issues<\/h3>\n
Whether a jury is entitled to infer intent if they consider a defendant\u2019s actions highly likely to cause death or serious bodily harm.\u00a0 Whether the defendant\u2019s foresight of the likely consequences of his act is sufficient to satisfy the mens rea of murder as intent.\u00a0 Whether the trial judge\u2019s direction to the jury that the defendant could be guilty of murder if he knew it was highly probable that serious bodily harm would occur as a result of his act was a misdirection.<\/p>\n
Decision\/Outcome<\/h3>\n
The appeal was allowed.\u00a0 The trial judge\u2019s direction was a mis-direction.\u00a0 Modifying R v Moloney<\/a> [1985] 1 AC 905, <\/strong>the Court of Appeal held that the jury should be directed that they are not entitled to infer intention unless they are satisfied that they felt sure that death or serious bodily injury was a virtual certainty of the defendant\u2019s actions and that the defendant knew this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The defendant Nedrick held a grudge against a woman.\u00a0 In the middle of the night he drove to her house before pouring petrol through her letter box and igniting it. The defendant, without warning anyone in the house then drove home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85],"class_list":["post-5014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-uk-law"],"yoast_head":"\n
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