Concurrence

Generally, the need for concurrence, as a criminal element of most offences, arises because of the fact that the mens rea and actus reus must usually occur at exactly the same time for the offence in question to have been sufficiently brought about. This is because the criminal intent involved with the mens rea of an offence must precede, or at least coexist with, the criminal act so that they occur simultaneously or so that at least one flows into the other because there is a need for either voluntary action or a failure to act when necessary in keeping with the remit of the common law or statutory codification. But in view of the fact that not all offences will happen immediately after the intent to actually commit a crime has materialised, or the offence will not match the intent, so it is important to appreciate the criminal law has also looked to find ways around this illustrated by decisions domestically including Thabo Meli v. R (1954) 1 AER 373 (PC) and R v. LeBrun (1991) 4 AER 673.

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