... states of mind which separately or together can constitute the necessary Mens Rea of a criminal offence. When discussing Mens Rea, we often refer to the difference between subjective (Cunningham) and objective (Caldwell) tests. Put simply, a subjective test involves looking at what the actual defendant was believed to have been thinking, whereas an objective test considers what a reasonable person would have thought in the defendant's position. The Subjective test was used defined in the case of R v Cunningham 1957, which was the case where the defendant broke a gas meter to steal money that was concealed inside it, the gas seeped out into the house next door where Cunningham's mother was sleeping and became so ill that her life was endangered; consequently, Cunningham was charged under s. 23 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 with 'malicious administering a noxious thing so to endanger life'. The ...

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