ACCESSORY AFTER THE FACT - Ingredients => Definitions

Question 1

Knowing any person to be a party to an offence

Answer 1

Knowing

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.

Simester and Brookbanks: Principles of Criminal Law

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

R v CROOKS

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.

R v BRIGGS

Knowledge may also be inferred from wilful blindness that the offence was committed.

Person

Gender neutral, proven by judicial note or circumstantial evidence.

Party – Section 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.

Offence –

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

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

RTS

Must include:

• how the accessory had knowledge the person was party to an offence
• how the person was a party to the offence and what offence they were a party to and how it fits the definition

Question 2

Receives, comforts or assists that person

OR

Tampers with or actively suppresses any evidence

Answer 2

Receives / Comforts or Assists

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.

OR

Tampers with or actively suppresses any evidence

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

RTS

Must include:

• the actions taken by the accessory and how it fits the definition

Question 3

In order to enable him to escape after arrest

OR

to avoid arrest or conviction

Answer 3

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

OR

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

R v MANE

The act done by the accessory must be done after the completion of the offence.

RTS

• Must show how their actions enabled them to escape after arrest or avoid arrest or conviction