Accessory After The Fact

Question 1

Penalty

Answer 1

7 years (for life imprisonment offences)
5 years (for offences imprisonable by 10years+ )
1/12 penalty (of the offence if less than 10 years)

Question 2

Ingredients

Answer 2

1) Knowing any person to be a party to an offence

2) Receives, comforts or assists that person
OR
Tampers with or actively suppresses any evidence

3) In order to enable him to escape after the arrest
OR
to avoid arrest or conviction.

Question 3

Knowing

Answer 3

The accused must have knowledge that the person he is assisting was party to an offence at the time of assisting them.

Question 4

Simester and Brookbanks : Principles of Criminal Law

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Answer 4

Knowing means “knowing or correctly believing”. The defendant may believe something wrongly but can not know something that is false.

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 enquires that would confirm the suspected truth.

Question 7

Person

Answer 7

Gender neutral. Proven by judicial notice or circumstantial evidence.

Question 8

Party - Sec 66(1) Crimes Act 1961

Answer 8

(1)Everyone is party to and guilty of an offence who:

a) Actually commits the offence; or
b) Does or omits an act for the purpose of aiding any person to commit the offence; or
c) Abets any person in the commission of the offence; or
d) Incites, counsels or procures any person to commit the offence.

Question 9

Offence

Answer 9

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

A person being 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 pleaded guilty.

Question 10

Receives / Comforts / Assists

Answer 10

The accused does a deliberate act for the purpose of assisting the person to evade justice. The act done must actually help the person in some way.

Question 11

Tampers with / Actively Suppresses Evidence

Answer 11

Must do 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 12

R v Mane

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Section

Answer 13

Sec 71(1) Crimes Act 1961