4. Accessory After the Fact - Legislation

Question 1

Outline accessory after the fact in S71 CA61?

Answer 1

(1) An accessory after the fact to an offence is one who, knowing any person to have been a party to the offence, receives, comforts, or assists that person or tampers with or actively suppresses any evidence against him, in order to enable him to escape after arrest or to avoid arrest or conviction.

Question 2

Outline the penalty for accessory after the fact in S312 CA61?

Answer 2

Every one who is accessory after the fact to any imprisonable offence, being an offence in
respect of which no express provision is made by this Act or by some other enactment for
the punishment of an accessory after the fact, is liable to imprisonment for a term not
exceeding 7 years if the maximum punishment for that offence is imprisonment for life, and not exceeding 5 years if such maximum punishment is imprisonment for 10 or more years; and in any other case is liable to not more than half the maximum punishment to which he would have been liable if he had committed the offence.