R v Vickers FACTS: In Vickers, the defendant broke into a shop intending to steal from it. He was disturbed by the elderly lady who lived above the shop [1957] 2 QB 664. Vickers struck her and kicked her in the face, as a result of which she died. Vickers was convicted of murder. He appealed against his conviction on the grounds that the Homicide Act 1957 had removed an intention to cause grievous bodily harm as a head of mens rea for murder. The defence argued that, if Vickers intended to cause her grievous bodily harm, he was committing an offence under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, s 18, i.e. another offence and therefore, under the Homicide Act, s 1, the offence of murder had to be disregarded. HELD: This argument was rejected by the Court of Appeal, which confirmed the mens rea as set out above.