... present to establish mens rea - intention, recklessness and negligence. Intention can either be direct intent or purpose intent, this is the defendant's main purpose, his primary aim, or indirect intent. Indirect intent or oblique intent is where the criminal act is the virtual certain consequence of the defendants primary aim. An example of this would be where a person plants a bomb on a plane. The plane is carrying cargo belonging to that person and the primary aim is to destroy the cargo and claim the insurance. However the bomb not only destroys the cargo but kills the crew. If the direct intent principle were to be applied here the defendant would be acquitted, however the courts have extended indirect intent to cover similar situations. Under this principle we can establish mens rea as it would have been obvious that people were likely to die. Recklessness is the taking of ...

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