Criminal Code. The term "grievous bodily harm" means any bodily injury of such a nature as to endanger, or be likely to endanger life, or to cause, or be likely to cause, permanent injury to health; The term "have in possession" includes having under control in any place whatever, whether for the use or benefit of the person of whom the term is used or of another person, and although another person has the actual possession or custody of the thing in question; The term "indictment means a written charge preferred against an accused person in order to his trial before some Court other than justices exercising summary jurisdiction : The term "liable," used alone, means liable on conviction upon indictment; The term "mail" includes anything sent by post which is in actual course of transmission from one place to another; The term "mail conveyance" includes any conveyance of any kind by which a mail is carried, and also any vessel employed by or under the Post and Telegraph Department, or the postal authority of any other country, or the Admiralty, for the conveyance of mails, whether under contract or not, and also a ship of war or other vessel in the service of His Majesty in respect of letters conveyed by it; The term "money includes bank notes, bank drafts. cheques, and any other orders, warrants, authorities, or requests for the payment of money; 66 66 The term " night" or night-time means the interval between nine o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the morning; 66 The terms " person and owner," and other like terms, when used with reference to property, include corporations of all kinds, and any other associations of persons. capable of owning property: They also, when so used, include His Majesty ; The term " person employed in the Public Service " includes officers and men of the Defence Force and police officers, and persons employed to execute any process of a Court of justice, and persons employed by the Commissioner of Railways; The term "police officer 66 includes everything, animate or inanimate, capable of being the subject of ownership; The The term "railway Criminal Code. railway" includes every kind of way on which vehicles are borne upon a rail or rails, whatever may be the means of propulsion; The terms registered brand" and "registered mark' The term “ summary conviction means summary con viction before two justices in petty sessions ; The term "knowingly" used in connection with any term The term "valuable security" includes any document which The term "vessel" includes a ship, a boat, and every other 2. AN act or omission which renders the person doing the act or making the omission liable to punishment is called an offence. 3. OFFENCES are of three kinds, namely, crimes, misdemeanours, and simple offences. to Crimes and misdemeanours are indictable offences; that is say, the offenders cannot, unless otherwise expressly stated, indictment. be prosecuted or convicted except upon A person guilty of a simple offence may be summarily convicted by two justices in petty sessions. An offence not otherwise designated is a simple offence. 4. Definition of Division of offences. Attempts to commit offences. Arrest without warrant. Carnal knowledge. Principal offenders. Criminal Code. 4. WHEN a person, intending to commit an offence, begins to put his intention into execution by means adapted to its fulfilment, and manifests his intention by some overt act, but does not fulfil his intention to such an extent as to commit the offence, he is said to attempt to commit the offence. It is immaterial, except so far as regards punishment, whether the offender does all that is necessary on his part for completing the commission of the offence, or whether the complete fulfilment of his intention is prevented by circumstances independent of his will, or whether he desists of his own motion from the further prosecution of his intention. It is immaterial that by reason of circumstances not known to the offender, it is impossible in fact to commit the offence. The same facts may constitute one offence and an attempt to commit another offence. 5. THE expression "the offender may be arrested without warrant means that the provisions of this Code relating to the arrest of offenders or suspected offenders without warrant are applicable to the offence in question, either generally or subject to such conditions, if any, as to time, place, or circumstance, or as to the person authorised to make the arrest, as are specified in the particular case. Except when otherwise stated, the definition of an offence as a crime imports that the offender may be arrested without warrant. 66 The expression the offender cannot be arrested without warrant means that the provisions of this Code relating to the arrest of offenders or suspected offenders without warrant are not applicable to the crime in question, except subject to such conditions, if any, as to time, place, or circumstance, or as to the person authorised to make the arrest as are specified in the particular case. 66 6. WHEN the term "carnal knowledge or the term carnal connection" is used in defining an offence, it is implied that the offence, so far as regards that element of it, is complete upon penetration. 7. WHEN an offence is committed, each of the following persons is deemed to have taken part in committing the offence and to be guilty of the offence, and may be charged with actually committing it, that is to say (a.) Every person who actually does the act or makes the omission which constitutes the offence; (b.) Criminal Code. (b.) Every person who does or omits to do any act for the (c.) Every person who aids another person in committing the offence; (d.) Any person who counsels or procures any other to commit the offence; person In the fourth case he may be charged either with himself committing the offence or with counselling or procuring its commission. A conviction of counselling or procuring the commission of an offence entails the same consequences in all respects as a conviction of committing the offence. Any person who procures another to do or omit to do any act of such a nature that, if he had himself done the act or made the omission, the act or omission would have constituted an offence on his part, is guilty of an offence of the same kind, and is liable to the same punishment as if he had himself done the act or made the omission; and he may be charged with himself doing the act or making the omission. 8. WHEN two or more persons form a common intention to Offences committed prosecute an unlawful purpose in conjunction with one another, in prosecution of and in the prosecution of such purpose an offence is committed of common purpose. such a nature that its commission was a probable consequence of the prosecution of such purpose, each of them is deemed to have committed the offence. 9. WHEN a person counsels another to commit an offence, Mode of execution and an offence is actually committed after such counsel by the immaterial. person to whom it is given, it is immaterial whether the offence actually committed is the same as that counselled or a different one, or whether the offence is committed in the way counselled, or in a different way, provided in either case that the facts constituting the offence actually committed are a probable consequence of carrying out the counsel. In either case the person who gave the counsel is deemed to have counselled the other person to commit the offence actually committed by him. 10. A PERSON who receives or assists another who is, to his knowledge, guilty of an offence, in order to enable him to escape punishment, is said to become an accessory after the fact to the offence. A married woman does not become an accessory after the fact to an offence of which her husband is guilty, by receiving or assisting Accessories after Effect of changes in law. Application of Code as to offences wholly or partially committed in Western Australia. Criminal Code. assisting him in order to enable him to escape punishment; 'nor by receiving or assisting, in her husband's presence and by his authority, another person who is guilty of an offence in the commission of which her husband has taken part, in order to enable that other person to escape punishment: Nor does a husband become accessory after the fact to an offence of which his wife is guilty by receiving or assisting her in order to enable her to escape punishment. CHAPTER III.—APPLICATION OF CRIMINAL LAW. 11. A PERSON cannot be punished for doing or omitting to do an act, unless the act or omission constituted an offence under the law in force when it occurred, nor unless doing or omitting to do the act under the same circumstances would constitute an offence under the law in force at the time when he is charged with the offence. If the law in force when the act or omission occurred differs from that in force at the time of the conviction, the offender cannot be punished to any greater extent than was authorised by the former law, or to any greater extent than is authorised by the latter law. 12. THIS Code applies to every person who is in Western Australia at the time of his doing any act or making any omission which constitutes an offence. With regard to offences which are of such a nature that they comprise several elements, if any acts or omissions or events actually occur which, if they all occurred in Western Australia, would constitute an offence, and any of such acts or omissions or events occurs in Western Australia, although all or some of the other acts or omissions or events which, if they occurred in Western Australia, would be elements of the offence occur elsewhere than in Western Australia; then— (1.) If the act or omission which, in the case of an offence wholly committed in Western Australia, would be the initial element of the offence, occurs in Western Australia, the person who does that act or makes that omission is guilty of an offence of the same kind, and is liable to the same punishment, as if all the subsequent elements of the offence had occurred in Western Australia; and (2.) If that act or omission occurs elsewhere than in Western Australia, and the person who does that act or makes that omission afterwards comes into Western Aus tralia |