Accessory After the Fact

Question 1

Accessory After the Fact

Answer 1

Section 71 (1) Crimes Act 1961

Question 2

Penalty

Answer 2

under 10 years - 1/2 penalty
10 years + - 5 years
Life - 7 years

Question 3

Elements

Answer 3

1. Knowing any person to be 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 enable him or her to escape after arrest
   OR
   To avoid arrest or conviction

Question 4

Knowing

Answer 4

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 5

Simester & Brookbanks

Answer 5

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

Question 6

R v Crooks

Answer 6

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 7

R v Briggs

Answer 7

Knowlege may also be inferred from willful blindness or a deliberate abstention from making inquiries that would confirm the suspected truth

Question 8

Person

Answer 8

Gender neutral. Proven by judicial notice or circumstantially

Question 9

Party - s66 (1) CA 1961

Answer 9

Defined as being anyone who:

• commits the offence
• does or omits an act for the purpose of aiding any person to commit the offence
• Abets any person in the commission of the offence
• Incites, counsels, or procures any person to commit the offence

Question 10

Offence

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Principal crime must be proved

Answer 11

A person charged with being an accessory after the face 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 12

Receives / Comforts / Assists

Answer 12

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 13

Tampers with / Actively Suppresses Evidence

Answer 13

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 14

R v Mane

Answer 14

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

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

Question 15

Evades justice

Answer 15

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