FOCUS Accessory

Question 1

Accessory after the Fact

List:

• Tops and Sides
• Case Law
• Definition Headings

Answer 1

Section 71(1)
Crimes Act 1961
Penalty: Under 10y - 1/2
10y+ - 5y
Life - 7y

Knowing any person to be a party to an offence / Receives, comforts or assists that person OR tampers with or actively suppresses any evidence against him or her / In order to enable him or her to escape after arrest OR to avoid arrest or conviction

Simester and Brookbanks
R v Crooks
R v Briggs
R v Mane

Knowing
Person
Party
Offence
Receives / Comforts / Assists
Tampers with evidence
Evades Justice

Question 2

Define Knowing

Answer 2

The accused must have knowledge that the person that they are being an accessory to was an offence at the time of assisting them.

Question 3

Simester and Brookbanks

Answer 3

Knowing means knowing, or correctly believing. The belief must be a correct one, where the belief is wrong a person cannot know something.

Question 4

R v Crooks

Answer 4

Knowledge may also be inferred from wilful blindness or a deliberate abstention from making inquiries that would confirm the suspected truth

Question 5

Party

Answer 5

Section 66(1)
CA 61

Defined as being anyone who:
commits the offence;
does or omits an act for the purpose of aiding any person to commit the offence;
abets any person in the commission of the offence;
incites, counsels or procures any person to commit the offence

Question 6

Define offence

Answer 6

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 insist on proof of the principal crime and to challenge the evidence of it, even if the principal offender has pleaded guilty.

Question 7

Define receives / comforts / assists

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

Define tampers with / Actively Suppresses evidence

Answer 8

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

Question 9

R v Mane

Answer 9

To be considered an accessory the acts done by the person must be after the completion of the offence

Question 10

Define to avoid arrest or conviction

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Define in order to enable him or her to escape after arrest

Answer 11

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