Parties to and Accessories to a crime
The commission or criminal offense will often result from the planning and cooperation of several individuals.
Where the individual committing the offense has the requisite Mens rea, difficulty in establishing the elements of liability.
However, a problem may arise regarding the one who helped in the commission of the offense.
and
How must the assistant know of the offense to be convicted as an accomplice?
We note that there is a distinction between those who commit crimes and those who help in one way.
Several people may be involved in the commission of an offense but the degree of their involvement may vary.
Therefore, the law has to determine what degree should surface to criminal responsibility.
Also Read: Defence of Immunity
Example
A tells B and C that a warehouse has a large sum of money inside. D knowing the intention of the burglary lends them a rope to tie the night watchman.
E drives them to the scene of the crime not knowing their purposes. F witnesses their entry into the warehouse but does nothing to prevent them.
B stands on guard while C gets a box. A night watchman surprises them and B uses the rope to strangle him.
G knowing of the Burglary but not of murder diverts the policeman's attention while B and C escape. G hides them.
The issue is what is the criminal liability of each of the parties is.
Sections 19, 20, and 21 of the PCA species circumstances under which the following person may be criminally liable.
The distinct classes of parties can be identified as; principle offenders and accessories before and after the fact.
Principle offender
Is defined as the offender who has committed the offence.
Accomplice offender
Refers to the offender who helped somewhere in the commission of an offense.
The accomplice is further divided into;
- Aiders
- Abettors
- Counsellors
- Procurers
It should be noted that the difference between counseling and procuring on one hand and aiding and abetting, on the other hand,
Is that counseling and procuring occur before the commission of an offense while
Aiding and Abetting occur at the scene of the crime.
However, an accomplice may aid the commission of an offence by supplying the necessary equipment notwithstanding that he or she is not at the scene of the crime.
An explanation of the following terms
To counsel;
It refers to the commission of an offence involving an accomplice in advising, encouraging, pressuring, instructing, persuading, or even threatening the principal into committing the offense.
To counsel suffices that the principal offender knew of the advice, encouragement, pressure, instruction, persuasion, or threat and that his action was within the terms of the reference.
Counselling also involves the degree of understanding between the parties.
See
R v Calhaen [1985] 2 AllER 206
The defendant had hired a man named Zajac to kill a woman. Z testified that after being paid by the defendant he had decided not to carry out the killing, but instead to visit the victim's house, carrying an unloaded shotgun and a hammer, to act out a charade that would give the appearance that he had tried to kill her.
He claimed that when he had stepped inside the front door of the victim's house, she had screamed and he panicked, hitting her several times with the hammer.
The defendant appealed, submitting that, on Z's evidence there was no causal connection or no substantial causal connection.
The Court of Appeal affirmed the defendant's conviction.
It was held that the offense of counseling a person to commit an offense is made out if it is proved that there was counseling, that the principal offence was committed by the person counseled, and that the person counseled was acting within the scope of his authority and not accidentally when his mind did not go with his actions.
It is not necessary to show that the counseling was a substantial cause of the commission of the offense.
Read Next: Inchoate/Preliminary Offences.