Accessory after the Fact

Question 1

Accessory After the fact - Act and Section

Answer 1

Crimes Act 1961 Section 71(1)

Question 2

Accessory After the Fact - Liabilities

Answer 2

Crimes Act 1961 Section 71(1)

• Knowing any person to be a party to an offence
• Receives, comforts or Assists that person OR Tampers with or actively suppresses any evidence against him or her
• In order to enable him or her to escape after arrest OR to avoid arrest or conviction

Question 3

Knowing

Answer 3

The accused must have knowledge that the person they are being an accessory to was party to an offence at the time of assisting them.

Question 4

Simester and Brookbanks

Answer 4

Knowing means knowing or correctly believing. the belief must be a correct one, where the belief is wrong a person can not know something.

Question 5

R V CROOKS

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

R V BRIGGS

Answer 6

Knowledge may also be inferred from wilful blindness or a deliberate abstention from making inquiries that would confirm the suspected truth.

Question 7

Offence (in relation to Accessory)

Answer 7

Any act or omission that is punishable on conviction under any enactment, and are demarcated into four categories.

Question 8

Rights in relation to principal offence

Answer 8

A person charged with being an accessory after the fact is entitled to insist on proof of the principal crime and to challenge the evidence of it even if the principal offender has plead guilty.

Question 9

Receives / Comforts / Assists

Answer 9

A deliberate act for the purpose of assisting the person to evade justice .The act done must actually help the person in some way.
Receive - bring in/hide
Comfort - food and water
Assist - provide transport or supplies/sell/lie

Question 10

Tampers with or actively supresses evidence

Answer 10

A deliberate act in relation to evidence against the offender for the purpose of assisting the person to evade justice. The act must actually help the person.

Question 11

R V MANE

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Enable escape after arrest

Answer 12

The act must have specifically assisted the offender after they had been arrested.

Question 13

Avoid arrest of conviction

Answer 13

All acts done by the person with the express intention that the person evades justice by avoiding arrest or conviction.

Question 14

Crimes Act 1961 Section 71(1)

Answer 14

Accessory after the fact