Attempts

Question 1

Three necessary elements required to proven an attempt.

Answer 1

• Intent to commit an offence
• That they did or omitted an act for the purpose of achieving their object
• Proximity. That their act or omission was sufficiently close

Question 2

Acts that may constitute an attempt to commit an offence. (S/A)

Answer 2

• Lying in wait. Searching for or following the contemplated vicim
• Enticing the victim to go to the scene of the contemplated crime
• Scoping the scene of the contemplated crime
• Collecting, possessing or fabricating materials to be used in the commission of the crime
• Unlawfully entering structure, vehicle or enclosure contemplated to be the crime scene

Question 3

Three groups of offences that do not allow for a prosecution in respect of an attempt.

Answer 3

• Where criminality depends on recklesness or negligence (manslaughter)
• An attempt to commit an offence is included within the definition of that offence (assault)
• The act of the crime must be completed in order for the offence to exist at all (Demands with menace)

Question 4

R v Ring

Answer 4

The offenders intent was to steal property by putting his hand into the pocket of the victim. The offender didn’t know the pocket was empty. Regardless, he was able to be convicted of attempted theft, because the intent to steal whatever property might have been inside the pocket was present in his mind and demonstrated by his actions.

Question 5

R v Harpur

Answer 5

The court may have regard to conduct viewed cumulatively up to the point when the conduct in question stops. The defendant’s conduct may be considered in its entirety. How much remains to be done is always relevant, though not determinative.

Question 6

Higgins v Police

Answer 6

Where plants being cultivated as cannabis are not in fact cannabis it is physically, not legally, impossible to cultivate such prohibited plants. It is possible to commit the offence of attempting to cultivate cannabis.

Question 7

Police v Jay

Answer 7

A man bough hedge clipping believing they were cannabis.

Question 8

Section 72(1) - Ingredients of attempts

Answer 8

• Everyone who
• Having into to commit an offence
• Does or omits an act
• For the purpose of accomplishing his or her object
• Is guilty of an attempt to commit the offence intended
• Whether in the cirucmstances it was possible to commit the offence or not