Accessories and Abettors Act 1861

The Accessories and Abettors Act 1861[1]

Long title An Act to consolidate and amend the Statute Law of England and Ireland relating to Accessories to and Abettors of indictable Offences.
Citation 24 & 25 Vict. c.94
Territorial extent England and Wales,
Northern Ireland,
Republic of Ireland
Dates
Royal Assent 6 August 1861
Commencement 1 November 1861[2]
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

The Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c.94) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it then was). It consolidated provisions in English criminal law related to accomplices from a number of earlier statutes into a single Act. For the most part these provisions were, according to the draftsman of the Act,[3] incorporated with little or no variation in their phraseology. It is one of a group of Acts sometimes referred to as the criminal law consolidation Acts 1861. It was passed with the object of simplifying the law. It collects the scattered provisions on the subject contained in Peel's Acts (and the equivalent Irish Acts), incorporating subsequent statutes.[4]

Provisions still in force

The Act provides that an accessory to an indictable offence shall be treated in the same way as if he had actually committed the offence himself.

Section 8 of the Act, as amended, reads:

Whosoever shall aid, abet, counsel, or procure the commission of any indictable offence, whether the same be an offence at common law or by virtue of any Act passed or to be passed, shall be liable to be tried, indicted, and punished as a principal offender.

Section 10 states that the Act does not apply to Scotland.

The rest of the Act was repealed by the Criminal Law Act 1967 as a consequence of the abolition of the distinction between felonies and misdemeanours (see below).

Case law

In AG's Reference (No 1 of 1975) (1975) QB 773, Lord Chief Justice Widgery stated that the words in section 8 should be given their ordinary meaning.

Summary offences

The Act does not apply to summary offences, but section 44(1) of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 is to the like effect:

A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures the commission by another person of a summary offence shall be guilty of the like offence...

Repeals

Sections 1 to 7 and 9 of this Act were repealed for England and Wales by section 10(2) of, and Part III of Schedule 3 to, the Criminal Law Act 1967. They were repealed for Northern Ireland by section 15(2) of, and Part II of Schedule 2 to, the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1967.

Section 11 was repealed by the Statute Law Revision Act 1892.

See also

References

  1. This short title was conferred by the Short Titles Act 1896, section 1 and the first schedule.
  2. The Accessories and Abettors Act 1861, section 11
  3. Greaves. The Criminal Law Consolidation and Amendment Acts (1861) pp. 3-4
  4. James Edward Davis. The Criminal Law Consolidation Statutes of the 24 & 25 of Victoria, Chapters 94 to 100: Edited with Notes, Critical and Explanatory. Butterworths. 1861. Page vii.

External links

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