Categories Of Offences Flashcards
Name the different types of offences…
1) indictable only: the most serious types of offences e.g rape, murder, robbery. Start at mags court but will be straight upstairs to the crown court. max jail sentence mags can impose is 6months
2) either-way: serious e.g sexual assault, theft, assault causing gbh. Dealt with either at mags or crown court. After mags has heard the summary outline they can decide whether to deal with it or send it up to crown court. Defendant can still exercise his/her right to be held trial by a crown court jury.
3) summary: relatively minor e.g common assault, drunkenness and speeding. Always dealt with at mags unless a defendant faces both summary and either-way/indictable only charges from same case then crown court can deal with all. No right to be tried by a crown court jury though.
4) strict liability: when applied in law it removes/strictly limits the defences to the charge e.g. A driver who breaches speed limit has committed am offence even if they didn’t realise how fast they were driving - I.e. It is impossible to prove that mens rea (a guilty mind) existed.
