Offensive Weapons Flashcards
There are several key pieces of legislation we will look at:
s.1 Prevention of Crime Act 1953
s.139 Criminal Justice Act (CJA) 1988 (which was updated by amendments contained within the Offensive Weapons Act 1996)
s.141 Criminal Justice Act 1988
Legislation - s.1 Prevention of Crime Act 1953 (full text of the legislation)
S1 Prevention of Crime Act 1953 makes it a criminal offence to…
…carry a weapon in a public place without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. The points to prove are:
Any person who without
Lawful Authority or Reasonable Excuse
has with him in any public place
any offensive weapon
shall be guilty of an offence
What are made offensive weapons?
Items purely designed for causing injury to another, such as flick knives, knuckledusters and batons.
They serve no other purpose and, as such, there is no requirement to prove any intention to use the item
What are adapted weapons?
Adapted weapons are innocent items that have been deliberately altered in some way to turn them into weapons.
A screwdriver with a deliberately sharpened point or a baseball bat hammered in with nails to make a spiky club are both examples of adapted weapons.
What are intended weapons?
Any item in the suspects possession, with which he/she INTENDS to cause injury
e.g. if someone becomes involved in an altercation on the street and they take their belt off to use as a weapon, the belt becomes an intended weapon.
Possession alone will not be an offence; must demonstrate suspect intended to use it to cause injury. As such, the burden of proof lies with proving that they carried it intending to use it to cause injury. This proof can come from questioning the suspect.
There are some very limited circumstances in which a suspect may put forward a reasonable excuse for having a weapon in their possession, the burden of proving lies with the defendant on the balance of probabilities.
One circumstance that will not constitute an offence is when the case is one of “instant arming”. If someone is being attacked and reaches out for an item close at hand and uses it as a weapon in self-defence, they will not commit this offence.
Other times you may consider “reasonable excuse”. This is when someone is in possession of an item because it is used in their trade, such as a chainsaw being carried by a tree surgeon
Unreasonable excuses have been established by case law. Some of the most common ones which will not provide a defence include:
Forgetfulness - R v McCalla (1988) (e.g forgetting weapon in glovebox).
Ignorance - R v Densu (1997) (e.g not knowing true identity of article).
General self-defence - Evans v Hughes (1972) (e.g just in case he/she is attacked).
State The Criminal Justice Act 1988, s139(1)
Any person who has:
an article which is bladed…
…or sharply pointed…
…with him in any public place…
…without lawful authority or good reason…
…shall be guilty of an offence.
What are Bladed Articles?
A bladed article is, literally, anything with a blade.
Importantly, pocket knives with a blade less than 3 inches (7.62cm) long which cannot be locked in the open position are exempt.
In practice, this rules out most pen-knives, since these collapse and craft knives. Lock-knives of any size, however, are included in the legislation, as is any kind of pocket knife or folding knife with a blade larger than 3 inches long.
What are Sharply-Pointed Articles?
These can include almost any item with a sharp point. Common sense must apply though.
This law was not intended to see schoolchildren arrested for carrying geometry sets on their way to school.
Penalties for carrying offensive weapons
The penalty under s.139 Criminal Justice Act 1988 is a maximum of four years’ imprisonment.
Prior to the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, this was only two years’ imprisonment and the law was seen as the much poorer cousin of the s.1 Prevention of Crime Act offence.
In general, if someone is in possession of a weapon, the offence under s.1 Prevention of Crime Act 1953 will be preferred - flick knives, concealed blades etc. should be charged under that legislation rather than s.139 CJA 1988, even though they fall into both sets of legislation, as the penalty and starting point for sentencing are both higher.
s.139A Criminal Justice Act 1988 extended the scope of the act by broadening “public place” to include what?
school premises. This included any land being used for the purposes of a school, including playgrounds and fields.
- s.139A(1) CJA 1988 refers to or sharply pointed article in a school.
- s139A(2) CJA 1988 covers other offensive weapons in a school.
s.139A Criminal Justice Act 1988 allows officers to do what?
This act also allows officers to enter school premises, by reasonable force if necessary, and search people and premises under s.139B CJA.
Any weapons found can also be seized under s.139B CJA.
Threatening with a Weapon in a Public Place
The legislation states that a person is guilty of an offence if that person:
Has an offensive weapon or bladed article (“offensive weapon” has the same meaning as in section 1 Prevention of Crime Act 1953 and “bladed article” has the same meaning as section 139 CJA 1988) with him or her in a public place or on school premises
Unlawfully and intentionally threatens another person with the weapon
Does so in such a way that there is an immediate risk of “serious physical harm” to that person
The maximum sentence under this offence is 4 years’ imprisonment.
This is comparatively new legislation introduced under Section 142 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
Section 28 Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006
Response to gangs using children under 10 to mind weapons; juvenile cannot be prosecuted for possession of a weapon.
Some of the key factors in this legislation are that the arrangement must facilitate or intend to facilitate the unlawful use of the weapon. The minding will be guilty of this offence, not the child.
In other circumstances if the person uses a woman (women are often less likely to be subject to a s.1 PACE 1984 search) the one arranging the minding would again be guilty of the s.28 offence and the woman would be guilty of a s.1 Prevention of Crime Act 1953 offence.
