Parties to Flashcards
Parties to Offence
Identify Act and Section
Define ingredients
- *Section 66, Crimes Act 1961**
(1) Every one is a party to and guilty of an offence who-
(a) Actually commits the offence; or
(b) Does or omits an act for the purpose of aiding any person to commit the offence; or
(c) Abets any person in the commission of the offence; or
(d) Incites, counsels, or procures any person to commit the offence.
What you need to prove
In each case of charging a person with being a party to an offence you must prove what?
- The identity of the defendant, and
- an offence has been successfully committed; and
- the ingredients of the offence (s66(1)) have been satisfied.
Participation
When must participation have occurred for a person to be party to an offence?
To be considered a party to the offence, participation must have occurred
- before or during (contemporaneous with) the commission of the offence and
- before the completion of the offence.
Particiaption after completion makes a person accessory, not a party.
Intent to help or encourage
Cite the case law relating to intent to help or encourage
R v Pene
A party must intentionally help or encourage - it is insufficient if they were reckless as to whether the principal was assisted or encouraged.
Principal Offender
Does the principal offender need to be identified?
Cite case law
No.
_R v Renata _
Three offenders beat the victim 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 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).
**Proof of assistance **
Does there need to be actual proof of assistance?
Cite case law
Actual proof of assistance is needed.
Larkins v Police
While it is unnecessary that the principal should be aware that he or she is being assisted, there must be proof of actual assistance. The mere commission of an act intended to have that effect is insufficient. Absence of knowledge by the principal that he is being assisted removes a common foundation for a finding of actual assistance, namely that the principal was able to proceed with his enterprise with the additional confidence gained because his accomplice was on the lookout for unwanted intervention.
Abets
Define
Abets means to instigate or encourage; that is, to urge another person to commit the offence. As with aiding, the presence of the abettor at the scene of the offence at the time of its commission is not required.
Legal duty
Cite case law used in the material to give an example of ‘legal duty’.
_Ashton v Police _
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.
Special relationship
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.
Give case law to support this
R v Russell
The accused was charged with the murder of his wife and two sons. 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 failed to render assistance to his wife or their children. 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.
Incites
Define
To incite means to rouse, stir up, stimulate, animate, urge or spur on a person to commit the offence. For example, a sports fan spurs on another fan to assault a protester and yells approval while the offence takes place
Counsels
Define
Counsels means to intentionally instigate the offence by advising a person(s) on how best to commit an offence, or planning the commission of an offence for another person(s). Counselling may also mean “urging someone to commit an offence”, in which case it will overlap with incitement.
Procures
Define
Procurement is setting out to see that something happens and taking the appropriate steps to ensure that it does.
Produce by endeavour
Party to a secondary offence
Define from legislation
- *Section 66, Crimes Act 1961**
(2) Where 2 or more persons form a common intention to prosecute any unlawful purpose, and to assist each other therein, each of them is a party to every offence committed by any one of them in the prosecution of the common purpose if the commission of that offence was known to be a probable consequence of the prosecution of the common purpose.
Liability for violence during shared endeavour
If violence is not discussed but violence occures during execution, are parties liable for the violence
Cite case law
R v Betts and Ridley
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.
Innocent Agent
Define
An innocent agent is someone who is unaware of the significance of their actions.
