Complicity

Question 1

What knowledge must an offender have to be considered an accessory before the fact?

Answer 1

An accessory before is one who is absent at the time of the actual offence but
 counsels,
 commands or
 abets another to commit that offence

Must also have knowledge of the crime to be committed.

Question 2

What is the test for common purpose?

Answer 2

Three elements required for common purpose
1. A joint criminal enterprise (foundational crime)
2. Participation by the accused in the enterprise
3. An incidental crime committed by a participant outside the agreed enterprise but within their contemplation

Question 3

What is an innocent agent?

Answer 3

principle in the 1st degree may commit crime through an innocent agent.
An innocent agent is a person who
1. Is under the directions of a principle 2. commits the actus reus of the offence however lacks the appropriate mens rea.

Eg. Father gives daughter poison tea & tells her to give it to grandmother without knowing what it contains. Grandmother dies. Father commits murder via innocent agent = daughter.

Question 4

What are the principles of a Joint Criminal Enterprise?
What is the case law for Joint Criminal Enterprise?

Answer 4

Prosecution must prove
1. Agreement: existence of a joint criminal enterprise / agreement and
2. Participation: by the accused in that event.

Case Law: R v TANGYE

‘A joint criminal enterprise exists where two or more persons reach an understanding or arrangement amounting to an agreement between them that they will commit a crime…’

Question 5

What are the principles of a Extended Common Purpose?

Answer 5

1. Agreement of a foundational offence
2. An incidental offence occurs
3. Accused foresaw the incidental crime as a possible incident of the joint criminal enterprise

Question 6

What is required to be considered an accessory after the fact?

Answer 6

Is when someone who after the commission of a SIO & with knowledge (direct or implied) that a SIO has been committed either
 Receives,
 Comforts,
 Harbours,
 Assists or
 Maintains the offender

Didn’t have knowledge prior to the offence but have to know what the offence is when they help.

Question 7

What is the doctorine of Common Purpose?

Answer 7

• If two or more wrongdoers act together in pursuance of a common unlawful objective, then every act done in furtherance of that common purpose, by any one of them is at law done by all of them.

Question 8

What is the case law and what does it say regarding common puprose?

Answer 8

McAuliffe v R confirms that it is a subjective test regarding what is contemplated[1]

‘.. In accordance with the emphasis the law now places upon the actual state of mind of an accused person, the test has become a subjective one and the scope of the common purpose is to be determined by what was contemplated by the parties sharing the purpose’