Parties Case Laws Flashcards
R v Pene
Intentionally help
A party must intentionally help or encourage - it is insufficient if they were reckless as to whether the principal was assisted or encouraged.
R v Renata - What was it about?
In Renata three offenders beat a person to death in the car park of a tavern. The prosecution was unable to establish which blow was the fatal one or which of the three offenders administered it. The Court held that in matters such as these, the prosecution should look to proving culpability through mens rea and actus reus highlighted in s66(1).
R v Renata
Principal offender
The court held that where the principal offender cannot be identified, it is sufficient to prove that each individual accused must have been either the principal or a party in one of the ways contemplated by s66(1).
Larkins v Police
(Actual proof of assistance)
and Examples of assistance
While it is unnecessary that the principal should be aware that he or she is being assisted, there must be proof of actual assistance.
- Keeping lookout for someone committing a burglary.
- Providing a screwdriver to someone interfering with a motor vehicle.
- Telling an associate when a neighbour is away from their home so as to allow the opportunity to commit a burglary.
Ashton v Police
Legal Duty
An example of a secondary party owing a legal duty to a third person or to the general public is a person teaching another person to drive. That person is, in New Zealand, under a legal duty to take reasonable precautions, because under s156 of the Crimes Act 1961 he is deemed to be in charge of a dangerous thing.
R v Russell - What was it about?
Where there is a special relationship and no intervention on the part of the person who would be a party, then this might amount to approval and encouragement of the principal offender’s actions.
This concept is highlighted in Russell where following an argument between the accused and his wife, the wife, in the presence of the accused, allegedly jumped into a swimming pool with both children, drowning them all. The accused was charged with the murder of his wife and two sons after he failed to render assistance to his wife or their children.
R v Russell
Special Relationship
The court held that the accused was morally bound to take active steps to save his children, but by his deliberate abstention from so doing, and by giving the encouragement and authority of his presence and approval to his wife’s act he became an aider and abettor and thus a secondary offender.
R v Betts and Ridley - What was it about?
In R v Betts and Ridley, Victor Betts and Herbert Ridley agreed to rob a man, William Andrews, as he was on his way to the bank. Their plan was that Betts would push the individual to the ground and snatch his bag. Meanwhile Ridley would be waiting around the corner in a getaway car. However, Betts struck Andrews with such force that he died as a result of the blow.
Both were subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to death. An appeal against the murder conviction by both men was dismissed. However, the Home Secretary advised the King to commute the death sentence in the case of Ridley to life imprisonment. Betts was subsequently hanged.
R v Betts and Ridley
No violence is contemplated
An offence where no violence is contemplated and the principal offender in carrying out the common aim uses violence, a secondary offender taking no physical part in it would not be held liable for the violence used.
What are the 6 ‘must know’ case laws?
- R v Pene
- R v Renata
- Larkins v Police
- Ashton v Police
- R v Russell
- R v Betts and Ridley
