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R v Miller (1983)

Last modified: Thu Feb 23 16:37:37 2006

This case (Miller [1983] 2 AC 161 House of Lords) demonstrates how actus reus can be interpreted to be not only an act, but a failure to act.

Miller, a vagrant, set fire to a mattress in a house in which he was sleeping. Rather than taking action to put out the fire, he moved to a different room; the fire went on to cause extensive damage. He was convicted of arson. Miller's defence was that there was no actus reus coincident with mens rea. Although his reckless inattention to the fire could be said to constitute mens rea, it was not associated with the actus reus of setting the fire. The trial judge ruled that the actus reus was not the setting of the fire, but was the omission to deal with a dangerous situation the defendent himself created. Thus an omission can be an actus reus for a criminal conviction, even where no prior legal duty of care exists. The Appeal Court rules that the actus reus was in fact the set of events, starting with the time the fire was set, and ending with the reckless refusal to extinguish it. This made the mens rea and actus reus coincide. The House of Lords upheld the view of the trial judge.

So it seems that we now have two different ways of showing that an omission to act constitutes actus reus. First, the notion that ones actions can create a duty, failure to act on which is blameworthy. Second, that an act and a subsequent omission constitute a collective actus reus.

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