The life of the law

A case of mistaken identity

Many of us remember the decision in R v Collins [1972] 2 All ER 1105 from our student days. A young man of 19, after a good deal of drink, used a ladder to climb up onto a girl’s window hoping to have sex with her. The girl woke up and saw a naked male form and jumped to the conclusion it was her boyfriend and invited him into the bedroom. The couple had sexual intercourse, the girl eventually realising the young man was a stranger. The Court of Appeal quashed the young man’s conviction for burglary with intent to commit rape on the ground the jury had not been invited to consider the vital question whether he had ‘entered’ the bedroom as a ‘trespasser’. The facts of the case (as recited by Edmund Davies LJ) revealed the bedroom window was wide open and the young man was