Abduction Flashcards
Abduction
Section 208 (a) or (b) or (c) Crimes Act 1961
Penalty
14 years
Elements
- Unlawfully
- Takes Away or Detains
- A person
- Without his/her consent OR with his/her consent obtained by fraud or duress
- With intent to:
a) marry him/her
b) have sexual connection with him/her
c) cause him/her to be married to or to have sexual connection with some other person
Unlawfully
Without lawful justification, authority or excuse
R v Crossan
Taking away and detaining are “separate and distinct offences. The first consists of taking [the victim] away, the second of detaining them”
R v Wellard - Takes Away
The essence of the offence of kidnapping is the “deprivation of liberty couple with a carrying away from the place where the victim wants to be”
R v Pryce - Detains
Detaining is an active concept meaning to “keep in confinement or custody”. This is to be contrasted to the passive concept of “harbouring” or mere failure to hand over.
A person
Gender Neutral. Proven by judicial note or circumstantially.
Consent
is a person’s conscious and voluntary agreement to something desired or proposed by another.
R v Cox
Consent must be “full, voluntary, free and informed … freely and voluntarily given by a person in a position to form a rational judgement”
To obtain consent by fraud
Consent obtained by the misrepresentation of the facts or the offenders intentions
To obtain consent by Duress
Consent obtained by actual or implied threat of force to the victim or another person. Can include other forms of pressure or coercion.
Child under 16 years & consent
A child under the age of 16 years cannot consent to being taken away or detained
Sec 2019A, Crimes Act 1961
Intent
In a criminal law context there are two specific types of intention in an offence. Firstly there must be an intention to commit the act and secondly, an intention to get a specific result.
R v Mohi
The offence is committed at the time of taking away, so long as there is, at that moment, the necessary intent. It has never been regarded as necessary…that the crown should show the intent was carried out
Marry
In this context the term ‘to marry’ means to engage in a marriage solemnised in accordance with the provision of the Marriage Act 1955
Sexual Connection
a) connection effected by the introduction into the genitalia or anus of one person, otherwise than for genuine medical purposes, of:
i) a part of the body of another person
ii) an object held or manipulated by another person
b) connection between the mouth or tongue of one person and a part of another person’s genitalia or anus
c) the continuation of connection of a kind described in paragraph a or b
Cause to be married or have sexual connection with some other person
This relates to situation where the abductor takes away or detains a victim to enable another person to marry them
OR
Under this provision the offender’s intent is to enable another person to have sexual connection with the victim.
