... presumption that it is an essential ingredient in every criminal offence, liable to be displaced either by the words of the statute or by the subject matter. If a particular intent or state of mind is an ingredient of a specific offence, which must be proved by the prosecution; but the nonexistence of mens reas is a matter of defense. Thus for a defendant to be guilty he should have the mens reas which does not correspond to the mistaken belief, i.e. the mistaken belief was not genuine and actus reus. A man under the new Sexual Offences Bill 2003 under clause 1(2) will have the mens rea if either he knows that the victim does not consent or he is reckless as to whether the victim consents. It is clear from the decision of the House of Lords in DPP v Morgan2. The House of Lords held that if the ...

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