... justification or excuse, whether such justification or excuse be stated in any statute, creating the crime or implied by the courts in accordance with general principle..."1 Williams's definition of actus reus seems to encapsulate the meaning of the principle. It suggests that a person has carried out a crime if they have committed the act and have no recognisable defence and therefore must be convicted. In Alex's case there may well be the defence of non-insane automatism, that an external factor, which was beyond her control, resulted in her actions and so she would have had an excuse. As for David, if it was proved that there was no actus reus his actions, would be a justification and therefore his actions could be classed as self-defence. There can be no crime without actus reus and therefore when building a case against the convicted all aspects of actus reus and its defences have to ...

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