Kidnapping Flashcards
Kidnapping
Section and Penalty
Section 209 (a) or (b) or (c) Crimes Act 1961
14 years imprisonment
Kidnapping Ingredients
1) Unlawfully
2) Takes away or Detains
3) A Person
4) Without his or her consent
OR
With his or her consent obtained by fraud or duress
5) With Intent to:
a) To hold him or her for ransom or to service
OR
b) To cause him or her to be imprisoned or confined
OR
c) To cause him or her to be sent or taken out of NZ.
Unlawfully
Without lawful justification, authority or excuse
R v Crossan
Taking away and detaining are “separate and distinct offences. The first consists of taking the victim away. The second of detaining them.
The first offence was complete when the prisoner took the woman away against her will. Then, having taken her away, he detained her against her will, and his conduct in detaining her constituted a new and different offence.
R v Wellard
The essence of the offence of kidnapping is the deprivation of liberty coupled with carrying away from the place where the victim wants to be.
R v Pryce
Detaining is an active concept meaning to keep in confinement or custody. This is to be contrasted to the passive concept of harbouring or mere failure to hand over.
Person
Gender neutral proven by judicial notice or circumstantial evidence.
Consent
And
R v Cox
Consent is a persons conscious and voluntary agreement to something desired or proposed by another.
R v Cox
Consent must be full, voluntary, free and informed. Freely and voluntarily given by a person to form a rational judgement.
To Obtain Consent by FRAUD
Consent obtained by the misrepresentation of the facts or the offenders intentions.
To obtain consent by DURESS
Actual or implied threat of force to the victim or another person. Can include other forms of pressure or coercion.
Child under 16
Section 209A Crimes Act 1961
For the purposes of S208 and S209, a person under the age of 16 years cannot consent to being taken away or detained.
Intent
In a criminal law context there are two specific types of an intention in an offence. Firstly there must be an intention to commit the act and secondly an intention to get a specific result.
Mohi
The offence is complete once there has been a period of detention or a taking accompanied by the necessary intent, regardless of whether that intent was carried out.
R v Waaka
Intent may be formed at any time during the taking away. If a taking away commences without the intent to have intercourse, but that intent is formed during the taking away, then that is sufficient for the purposes of the section.
R v M
The crown must prove that the accused intended to take away or detain the complainant and that he or she knew that the complainant was not consenting.