Abduction Flashcards
Abduction
Section and Penalty
Section 208 (a) or (b) or (c) Crimes Act 1961
14 years imprisonment
Abduction Ingredients
1) Unlawfully
2) Takes away or Detains
3) A Person
4) Without his or her consent
OR
With his or her consent obtained by fraud or duress
5) With Intent to:
a) marry him or her or
b) have sexual connection with him or her or
c) cause him or 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.
2 x charges to be filed if both in play
R v Wellard
The essence of the offence of kidnapping is the deprivation of liberty coupled with carrying away from the place where the victim wants to be.
R v Pryce
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.
Person
Gender neutral proven by judicial notice or circumstantial evidence.
Consent
And
R v Cox
Consent is a persons 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 to form a rational judgement.
To Obtain Consent by FRAUD
Consent obtained by the misrepresentation of the facts or the offenders intentions.
Fraudulently by repainting himself as a police officer
Stating bus broken down which it hadn’t.. picking up females.
To obtain consent by DURESS
Actual or implied threat of force to the victim or another person. Can include other forms of pressure or coercion.
Child under 16
Section 209A Crimes Act 1961
For the purposes of S208 and S209, a person under the age of 16 years cannot consent to being taken away or detained.
Intent
In a criminal law context there are two specific types of an 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 complete once there has been a period of detention or a taking accompanied by the necessary intent, regardless of whether that intent was carried out.
R v Waaka
Intent may be formed at any time during the taking away. If a taking away commences without the intent to have intercourse, but that intent is formed during the taking away, then that is sufficient for the purposes of the section.
a) Marry him or her
In this context, “to marry” means to engage in a marriage solemnised in accordance with the provisions of the Marriage Act 1955.