Association offences

Question 1

Ingredients to Parties to offences - Crimes Act 1961, Section 66

Answer 1

• (1) Everyone who
o Actually commits the offence
o Does / Omits an act for the purpose of aiding any person to commit offence
o Abets any person in commission of offence
o Incites / Counsels / Procures any person to commit offence

• (2) two or more persons form common intention to,
Prosecute any unlawful purpose and assist each other therein,
Each is a party to every offence committed by any one of them, In the prosecution of the common purpose,
If the commission was known to be a probable consequence of the prosecution of the common purpose.

Question 2

Ingredients to Accessory after the fact - Crimes Act 1961, Section 71

Answer 2

• Person who
• Knowing any person to have been a party to the offence
o receives
o comforts
o assists
o tampers with evidence
o actively suppresses evidence against him
• To enable him to
o escape after arrest
o avoid arrest or detention
(doesn’t apply to married or civil union partners)

Question 3

Ingredients to Attempts - Crimes Act 1961, Section 72

Answer 3

• Everyone who
• Having an intent to commit an offence
• Does / Omits an act
• For the purpose of accomplishing his object
• whether or not, in the circumstances, it was possible to commit the offence or not

Question 4

Ingredients to Conspiring to commit offence - Crimes Act 1961, Section 310

Answer 4

• Everyone who
• Conspires with
• Any person
• To commit any offence / To do or omit anything which would be an offence if in NZ

(2 + people, agreement made, agreement to commit an offence, intention to commit the offence at time of agreement)

Question 5

What needs to be proved for conspiracy?

Answer 5

• That two or more people must be involved;
• An agreement is made;
• The agreement made is to commit an offence; and
• At the time of the agreement the intention of all parties involved was to commit the offence.

Question 6

Conspiracy

Answer 6

Two or more people forming an agreement to do an unlawful act - only intention to commit offence

Question 7

Omission

Answer 7

failure to act - the action of excluding or leaving out someone or something

Question 8

When does conspiracy end?

Answer 8

R v Sanders held that a conspiracy does not end with the making of the agreement. The conspiratorial agreement continues until it is ended by completion of its performance or abandonment or in any other manner by which agreements are discharged

Question 9

Actively suppresses evidence against him

Answer 9

Actively suppressing evidence encompasses acts of concealing or destroying evidence against an offender. - e.g washing bloodied clothes repeatedly

Question 10

What is the accessory’s intent when assisting

Answer 10

To enable the offender to:
• escape after arrest
• avoid arrest
• avoid conviction.

Question 11

What are the three elements of an attempt offence conviction?

Answer 11

• intent (mens rea) – to commit an offence
• act (actus reus) – that they did, or omitted to do, something to achieve that end
• proximity – that their act or omission was sufficiently close

The suspect behaviour must satisfy all three conditions, at a minimum, to constitute an attempt.

Question 12

When are you unable to charge with attempt?

Answer 12

You are not able to charge someone with an attempt to commit an offence where:
• The criminality depends on recklessness or negligence, eg manslaughter.
• An attempt to commit an offence is included within the definition of that offence, eg assault.
• The offence is such that the act has to have been completed in order for the offence to exist at all. For example, demanding with menaces: it is the demand accompanied by the menace that constitutes the offence.

Question 13

What do you need to prove with party to an offence?

Answer 13

In each case of charging a person with being a party to an offence, you must prove:
• the identity of the defendant, and
• an offence has been successfully committed, and
• the elements of the offence (s66(1)) have been satisfied

Where there is more than one offence committed, the elements must be applied to each offence separately.

Question 14

What are the elements of Parties to offence (s66(1)) that need to be satisfied?

Answer 14

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.

Question 15

Abets

Answer 15

Abets means to instigate or encourage; that is, to urge another person to commit the offence

Question 16

‘Incites’, ‘counsels’ or ‘procures’

Answer 16

The following three categories that enable someone to be convicted as a party (incites, counsels or procures) take place before the offence is in fact carried out, and generally does not warrant the attendance of the inciter, counsellor or procurer at the scene, at the time of the incident.

Question 17

Incite

Answer 17

To incite means to rouse, stir up, stimulate, animate, urge or spur on a person to commit the offence

Question 18

Counsels

Answer 18

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”,

Question 19

Procure

Answer 19

“Procures” requires that the secondary party deliberately causes the principal party to commit the offence. It requires a stronger connection between the secondary party and the commission of the offence than is evidenced in aiding, abetting or inciting.

Example:
A woman obtains the services of a ‘hit man’ to kill her husband and offers money or sexual services to him as payment.

Question 20

Attempts - Case law - R V Harpur

Answer 20

Conduct viewed cumulatively up to the point when the conduct in question stops.
Defendant’s conduct may be considered in its entirety. (How much remains to be done is relevant, though not determinative.)

Question 21

Conspiracy & Accessory after the fact - Case Law - R v Mane

Answer 21

Acts done by the “accessory” must be after the completion of the offence
MANE – HORSE: Murdering a horse, can’t be an accessory to “murder of a horse” if the horse isn’t dead!

Question 22

Conspiracy & Accessory after the fact - Case Law - R v Crooks

Answer 22

Knowledge = actual knowledge or belief, having no doubt that the person assisted was a party to the offence. Mere suspicion of their involvement in the offence is insufficient.
Helping “crooks” to bury a murdered body: all are parties – from body wrapper, driver, digger etc.

Question 23

Conspiracy & Accessory after the fact - Case Law - R v Briggs

Answer 23

Knowledge inferred from ‘wilful blindness’ or a ‘deliberate absence from making inquiries to confirm the truth’.

(BRIGGS – DIGS – digging a large body-shaped hole in the Waitakeres. Can’t say they didn’t know it was for a body their mate had killed?!)

Question 24

Conspiracy & Accessory after the fact - Case Law - Simester & Brookbanks

Answer 24

“Knowing” means “knowing, or correctly believing”

Belief must be a correct one, if it is incorrect, they cannot “know it”.

Question 25

Conspiracy & Accessory after the fact - Case Law - R v Mulcahy

Answer 25

Conspiracy is not just the Intention of 2+, but the the agreement of two or more to do an unlawful act, or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. When they agree to carry the offence into effect, the PLOT is the act.

Question 26

Conspiracy & Accessory after the fact - Case Law - R v Gibbs

Answer 26

Supplying food to an escaped convicted murderer.

Act or acts done by the accessory must have helped the other person in some way to evade justice.