Accessory After The fact

Question 1

Accessory After the fact

Liability

Answer 1

Accessory After the fact
S71(1) CA 61

Knowing any person to have been a party to the offence,

receives, comforts, 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

What needs to be proved

Answer 2

1. That the person who is received, comforted or assisted by the accessory is a party to an offence committed
2. That at the time of the receiving, comforting, or assisting that person, the acessory knows that person was a party to the offence
3. That the acessory received, comforted or assisted that person or tampered with or actively suppressed any evidence against that person
4. That at the time of the receiving, comforting or assisting ect, the acessory’s intent was to enable that person to escape after arrest or to avoid arrest or conviction

Question 3

Knowing any person to have been a party to an offence

Definition and case law

Answer 3

Knowing means correctly believing,

Knowledge must exist that an offence has been committed AND the person they are assisting was a party to that offence

R v Crooks
Knowledge means actual knowledge or belief in the sense of having no real doubt that the person assisted was a party to the relevant offence. Mere suspicion of their involvement in the offence is insufficient.

Question 4

R v Crooks

Answer 4

Knowing means correctly believing

R v Crooks
Knowledge means actual knowledge or belief in the sense of having no real doubt that the person assisted was a party to the relevant offence. Mere suspicion of their involvement in the offence is insufficient.

Question 5

R v Briggs

Answer 5

As with a receiving charge under s246(1), knowledge may also be inferred from wilful blindness or a deliberate abstention from making inquiries that would confirm the suspected truth.

Question 6

R v Mane

Answer 6

R v Mane

To be considered an accessory the acts done by the person must be after the completion of the offence

Question 7

Receiving or comforting definition

Answer 7

Harbouring an offender or offering them shelter can be considered receiving and/or comforting

Comforting encompasses situations where an accessory provides an offender with things such as food or clothing

Question 8

Tampers with evidence (define)

Answer 8

Tampers means to alter the evidence against the offender

E. G. Modify an offenders telephone records to conceal communications that might implicate them.

Question 9

Actively suppresses evidence (define)

Answer 9

Actively suppressing evidence encompasses acts of concealing or destroying evidence against an offender

E g. Bloodied clothing washed repeatedly or is burned to destroy the clothing

Question 10

Proof of the principal offence

Answer 10

In R V Mane the court agreed that an accessory after the fact is entitled to insist on proof that the alleged offence was committed and to challenge that proof.

This is despite any guliy plea entered by the principal offender