Transferred malice

Transferred malice

Transferred malice happens when the Mens rea directed to the intended victim is transfered to the unintended victim. This means that the intended victim and unintended victim is treated as if they are the same as in R v Latimer. This was also upheld in R v Mitchell where the court held that the malice could still be transferred to the unintended victim even if the intended victim receives harm.

However, the rule of transferred malice is only limited to situations where the Mens rea and Actus reus of the same crime coincided. In R v Pemblinton, the defendant was acquitted because he committed the Actus reus of malicious damage but with the Mens rea of Assault.