Читать книгу Criminal Law - Mark Thomas - Страница 60

An interesting question to pose at this early stage is whether a defendant can be liable in circumstances where the actus reus of an offence is committed by a third party. Ordinarily, the answer would be ‘no’; the defendant is required to satisfy the elements of the offence from his own conduct. However, there are a number of circumstances where the acts of another can form the basis of liability against the defendant. For example, an employer may be liable through the principle of vicarious liability for the conduct of their employee (see Chapter 6). Likewise, if a defendant causes the actus reus to be committed by an innocent third party (such as a child or an insane person), the defendant himself will be liable through the doctrine of innocent agency (see Chapter 4). For the majority of this text, we shall focus on the circumstances where the defendant has the relevant actus reus.