Actually Commits an Offence Flashcards
66(1)(a) actually commits the offence
Everyone is liable who actually commits the offence
what happens if multiple parties do individual acts which together are not a crime but
Ngamu (multiple parties doing different parts of a cheque fraud which alone would not be a crime)
Even if all the actions separately are not criminal but when added together they constitute a crime we can take all these people and characterise them as principal parties. Same for case in WWII of German soldier poisoning prisoners of war.
Caveat: If a person is not involved in the chain but they are a part of the enterprise then we are talking about conspiracy
What are the two solutions to the problem of no principal party:
- treat the person with the MR as principal party
- Convict A as the secondary party without a 1st degree party
L gets C to have sex with his wife, wife did not consent, but L told C she would and L believed this
Cogan and Leak
At this time in the UK you could not rape your own wife so there was no principal party. Court says even if a man uses someone else’s body to rape his wife and that other person is an innocent agent then the husband can be guilty of raping his wife as a principal party.
Sexual harassment case
Cooper
Adopts C and L thus, in NZ, a person may “Actually commit an offence” through an innocent agent and be principal party even if the AR requires specific physical contact between perpetrator and complainant
Former cop, accessed private data base with another cops password then phone operator allowed him in
Police v B
Tried to argue he did not access the data base, the person on the phone did. Argument failed as argument cannot be made that it is through the body of another person.
Paterson tells Brown to pick up a TV for him which unbeknown to B is not P’s
Paterson: LEADING CASE ON SOLUTION A: The CA say that the AR can be traced back to Paterson.
“He who acts through another, acts himself”
