Accessory After The Fact

Question 1

Section and Penalty

Answer 1

Section 71(1) Crimes Act 1961

7 years (for life imprisonment offences)
5 years (for offences imprisonable by 10years+ )
1/2 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 against him or her

3) In order to help 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 that they are being an accessory to was party to an offence at the time of assisting them.

Question 4

Simester and Brookbanks : Principles of Criminal Law

Knowing

Answer 4

Knowing means “knowing or correctly believing”. The belief must be a correct one, where the belief is wrong a person cannot know something.

Question 5

R v Crooks

Answer 5

Crooked knowledge

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 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 to an……

Answer 8

Sec 66(1) Crimes Act 1961

(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

….party to an 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 that person

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 or Actively Suppresses any Evidence against him or her

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

In order to enable him or her to escape after arrest

Answer 12

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

Question 13

R v Mane

Answer 13

After David Bain

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

Question 14

OR to avoid arrest or conviction

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Elements to be proved

Answer 15

That a person is a party to an offence, AND
That the accessory knew at the time of assistance that the person was a party, AND
That the accessory received, comforted, or assisted that person or tampered with or actively suppressed any evidence against that person, AND
That at the time of the assistance the accessory’s intent was to enable that person to escape after arrest or avoid arrest or conviction

Question 16

Spouse/civil union partner exceptions

Answer 16

S 71(2) CA61

You cannot be charged with being an accessory after the fact to your spouse or to your spouse and another party (when they are in concert). Same limitation applies to civil union but not to de facto or other family relationships