Professional Documents
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MCQ Assessment
MCQ Assessment
a) Mens rea
b) Defence
c) Motive
d) Actus reus
a) The complainant
c) Local Authorities
a) The judge
b) The jury
c) The prosecution
d) The defendant
d) It means that whenever the burden of proof is reversed to the defendant, he has to prove
the defence on a balance of probabilities.
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5. On most criminal law modules, the only two defences which the defendant has to prove
are…?
a) Fraud
b) Theft
c) Murder
d) Robbery
a) Robbery
b) Murder
c) Manslaughter
d) Criminal damage
a) Result crimes
b) Conduct-only crimes
d) Circumstance-only crimes
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9. Which of the following is correct?
a) D is liable only if the prosecution can prove D's acts were the SOLE cause of the result.
b) D may be liable if the prosecution can prove D's acts were a cause of the result.
10. The essence of the House of Lords' decision in Kennedy [2008] is:
a) Where the victim's act is unreasonable, unforeseeable or daft, it breaks the chain of
causation.
c) Where the victim is a fully informed and responsible adult, and freely and voluntarily self-
administers drugs supplied by D, D has not caused the victim's death.
d) Where the victim is a fully informed and responsible adult, and freely and voluntarily self-
administers drugs supplied by D, D has caused the victim's death.
11. Which of the following is true? The mens rea of a crime is:
c) that part of the crime which describes what D should have been thinking.
a) It is for the defendant to prove he did not form the mens rea of the crime.
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13. Which of the following is the most accurate summary of the Woollin (1999) test?
a) Where D is charged with murder and the simple direction (that it is for the jury to decide
whether D intended to kill or do serious bodily harm) is not enough, the jury should be
directed that they are not entitled to infer the necessary intention unless they feel sure that
death or serious bodily harm was a virtual certainty (barring some unforeseen intervention) as
a result of D's actions and that D appreciated that was the case, the decision being one for
them to reach on a consideration of all the evidence.
b) Where D is charged with murder and the simple direction (that it is for the jury to decide
whether D intended to kill or do serious bodily harm) is not enough, the jury should be
directed that they are not entitled to find the necessary intention unless they feel sure that
death or serious bodily harm was a virtual certainty (barring some unforeseen intervention) as
a result of D's actions and that D appreciated that was the case, the decision being one for
them to reach on a consideration of all the evidence.
c) Where D is charged with murder and the simple direction (that it is for the jury to decide
whether D intended to kill or do serious bodily harm) is not enough, the jury should be
directed that they may find D intended the natural consequences of his act.
d) Where D is charged with murder and the simple direction (that it is for the jury to decide
whether D intended to kill or do serious bodily harm) is not enough, the jury should be
directed that the greater the probability of a consequence the more likely it was that the
consequence was foreseen and the greater the probability was that that consequence was also
intended.
b) The jury may find D foresaw the result as a virtual certainty but may nevertheless find he
did not intend the result.
c) The jury must first decide whether D foresaw the result as a virtual certainty before
considering whether D intended the result.
d) The jury has to convict D if they find he foresaw the result as a virtual certainty.
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15. Which of the following is one of the reasons given by Lord Bingham in R v G (2004) for
overruling Caldwell (1981)?
a) It is correct morally and legally to convict a person on the basis of what would have been
obvious to a reasonable person.
d) The decision in Caldwell (1981) was made in line with legal principle.
16. Which of the following statements most accurately describes the factual issues which
arose in Church (1966)?
a) Two men hit a third over the head, intending to kill him, but only knocked him
unconscious. Believing he was dead and, in an effort to fake an accident, they rolled him off a
cliff. The man later died of exposure at the bottom of the cliff.
b) A man beat a woman unconscious and, in a panic and thinking she was dead, threw her
into a river. At the time she was alive but then died from drowning.
c) A man hit his wife on the chin, intending serious harm and knocking her unconscious.
While he was trying to drag her body along the street to avoid detection, he accidentally lost
his grip. Her head hit the pavement, fracturing her skull and causing her death.
d) A woman went to hit a man with her belt, but the belt accidentally rebounded and hit a
third party, causing injury.
17. Which of the following best describes the doctrine of transferred malice?
c) Whether an intention to hurt a pregnant woman can be transferred from the woman to the
unborn baby and then from the unborn baby to the child when it is born.
d) Whether a jury should be directed that they are not entitled to find the necessary intention
unless they feel sure that death or serious bodily harm was a virtual certainty (barring some
unforeseen intervention) as a result of D's actions and that D appreciated that was the case,
the decision being one for them to reach on a consideration of all the evidence.
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18. Which of the following examples is NOT capable of being a battery?
c) D thumps V
b) A threatening telephone call which causes the victim to suffer psychiatric harm.
c) A silent telephone call which causes the victim to suffer an identifiable clinical condition.
d) A push which causes the victim to fall over and suffer a broken arm.
20. Which is the correct statement in respect of the actus reus of an offence under section 20
OAPA 1861?
21. Burstow appealed against his conviction under s. 20 on what point(s) of law?
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22. Which is the correct statement in respect of the actus reus of an offence under section 18
OAPA 1861?
23. If a defendant is charged with murder and the jury finds that between his intentional act
and the victim's death medical negligence broke the chain of causation, which of the
following is TRUE?
c) D must be acquitted.
b) The mens rea for murder is intention to kill or cause serious harm.
c) The mens rea for murder is satisfied on proof that serious harm or death was a virtual
certainty and the defendant foresaw it as such.
d) The mens rea for murder is satisfied only on proof that the defendant intended to kill or
cause life threatening injuries.
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25. Which of the following is the defence of diminished responsibility under s. 2 Homicide
Act 1957 as amended by s. 52 Coroners and Justice Act 2009?
a) A person who kills or is a party to the killing of another is not to be convicted of murder if
D was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning which arose from a recognised
medical condition, substantially impaired D's ability to understand the nature of D's conduct,
form a rational judgment or exercise self-control, where the abnormality provides an
explanation for D's acts and omissions in doing or being a party to the killing.
b) D was suffering from such abnormality of mind (whether arising from a condition of
arrested or retarded development of mind or any inherent causes or induced by disease or
injury) as substantially impaired his mental responsibility for his acts and omissions in doing
or being a party to the killing.
c) A person who kills or is a party to the killing of another is not to be convicted of murder if
D was suffering from a disease of mental functioning which arose from a recognised medical
condition, substantially impaired D's ability to understand the nature of D's conduct, form a
rational judgment or exercise self-control, where the abnormality provides an explanation for
D's acts and omissions in doing or being a party to the killing.
d) D was labouring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know
the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or, if he did know it, that he did not know that
he was doing what was wrong.
26. For the defence of diminished responsibility to succeed (under s. 2 Homicide Act 1957 as
amended), D must prove which of the following? There was a substantial impairment in his
ability to:
c) Exercise self-control
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27. Which of the following is the new partial defence of loss of self-control under the
Coroners and Justice Act 2009?
b) Where on a charge of murder there is evidence on which the jury can find that the person
charged was provoked (whether by things done or by things said or by both together) to lose
his self-control, the question whether the provocation was enough to make a reasonable man
do as he did shall be left to be determined by the jury; and in determining that question the
jury shall take into account everything both done and said according to the effect which, in
their opinion, it would have on a reasonable man.
d) It does not matter whether or not the loss of control was sudden.
28. Which of the following characteristics ARE admissible by s. 54 (1)(c) of the Coroners
and Justice Act 2009?
b) Where the actus reus of murder can be proved and D intended to kill or cause serious
harm.
c) Where the actus reus of murder can be proved but D did not intend to kill or cause serious
harm.
d) Where the actus reus of murder can be proved and D intended to kill or cause serious
harm but D is excused by virtue of a partial defence.
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30. Which of the following is NOT an element of the offence of unlawful act manslaughter?
a) Foresight of death.
31. Which of the following statements is the BEST description of the offence of gross
negligence manslaughter?
a) D owes V a duty of care, D breaches that duty and the breach involves an obvious risk of
death, the breach causes death and the jury finds the breach serious enough to be a crime.
b) D owes V a duty of care, D breaches that duty, the breach causes death and the jury finds
the breach serious enough to be a crime.
c) D owes V a duty of care, D breaches that duty and the breach causes death.
d) D has to disregard recklessly a risk to V's health and welfare or actually foresee the risk.
a) In the offence of gross negligence manslaughter, the question of whether the breach of the
duty is serious enough to be a crime is a question of law for the judge.
b) In the offence of gross negligence manslaughter, the question of whether the breach of the
duty is serious enough to be a crime is a question of fact for the jury.
c) In the offence of gross negligence manslaughter, the question of whether the breach of the
duty is serious enough to be a crime involves an element of circularity.
d) In the offence of gross negligence manslaughter, the question of whether the breach of the
duty is serious enough to be a crime distinguishes civil negligence from criminal negligence.
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