Accessory After the Fact

Question 1

Ingredients of Accessory After the Fact.

Sec.71(1) C.A.61

Answer 1

.1 Any one
.2 Knowing any person to be a party to the offence.
.3 Receives, Comforts, or Assists that person; or
Tampers with, or Actively suppresses any evidence
.4 In order to enable him to escape after arrest, or to avoid arrest or conviction.

Question 2

Can you be charged as an accessory to your spouse?

Answer 2

Sec.71(2) C.A.61
No. You cannot be charged as an accessory after the fact to your spouse or civil union partner.
Also, you cannot be charged as an accessory to your spouse or civil union partner and some other person.
Does not include de-facto partner.

Question 3

R v Crooks

Answer 3

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 Briggs

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Explain the term wilful blindness.

Answer 5

A person is considered wilfully blind in only two situations:

1. where the person deliberately shuts their eyes & fails to inquire because they knew what the answer would be; or
2. where the means of knowledge are easily at hand & the person realises the likely truth, but refrains from inquiring in order not to know.

Question 6

Explain the term ‘wilful blindness’.

Answer 6

A person is considered wilfully blind in only two situations:

1. where the person deliberately shuts their eyes & fails to inquire because they knew what the answer would be; or
2. where the means of knowledge are easily at hand & the person realises the likely truth, but refrains from inquiring in order not to know.

Question 7

Explain ‘tampers with evidence’.

Answer 7

To alter the evidence.

Question 8

Explain ‘actively suppresses evidence’.

Answer 8

Concealing or destroying evidence.

Question 9

R v Mane

Answer 9

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

Question 10

R v Gibbs

Answer 10

The act done by the accessory must have helped the other person in some way to evade justice.

Question 11

R v Levy

Answer 11

It was held that Levy had done a deliberate act in relation to the evidence against the offender for the purpose of assisting that offender to evade justice (Actively Suppresses)

Question 12

Explain the prosecution process for a person charged with accessory after the fact.

Answer 12

An accessory may be charged alone or jointly, along with any party to the principal crime.
An accessory is entitled to insist on proof that the alleged offence was committed & challenge that proof.
A person can still be convicted as an accessory despite the offender having been acquitted of the offence, unless the accessory’s conviction is inconsistent with the acquittal of the original offender.