... the other hand the reporting of the missing £1000 would be expected. John may also attempt to plead mistake as a defence as he thought that he wasn't committing a crime by keeping something which evidently didn't belong to him. There clearly has been a mistake here; a mistake of law. There is a general rule that ignorance of the criminal law is no defence, even if the ignorance is reasonable in the circumstances2. Case B When a defendant has caused a victim's death, and has been proved to have had the necessary mens rea for murder, he may be able to avoid a conviction for murder by establishing that he comes within the scope of a defence. In each case, if Simon, a manic depressive, succeeds with the defence, his liability will be reduced from murder to manslaughter, the sentence for which is at the discretion of the judge. This form of ...

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