Fagan v. Metropolitan Police Commissioner

Fagan v. Metropolitan Police Commissioner [1969] 1 QB 439 is a leading case that illustrates the requirement for concurrence of actus reus and mens rea in order to establish an offence.

Backgroud

The defendant Mr. Fagan was in his car when a police officer approached him and told him to move his car. In accordance with the directions Mr. Fagan accidentally backed his car onto the foot of the officer. When the officer yelled at him to move his car off his foot, he cursed back at him, told him to wait, and shut-off the car.

At trial he was convicted of "assaulting a police officer in execution of his duties". Fagan appealed on the grounds that there can be no offence in omitting to act and that the act of driving onto the officers foot was done completely by accident so there was no mens rea.

Ruling

The court agreed that assault cannot be committed by an omission. However, in this case, the crime was not an omission to move to car, rather it was in the continual act of driving the car onto the officer's foot and leaving it there. Consequently, the crime is not complete until the moment he realizes that he drove on the foot of the officer while he was performing the continuous act.