Exam (elaborations)
Criminal Law Advice Note Template
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Criminal Law Advice Note Template on Offences and Defences discussed and elaborated under the Criminal Law form.
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Criminal Law Advice notes.A problem question criminal
liabilities across a range of different
offences
Andrew and Toby, keen environmentalists and known troublemakers, are
staging a protest outside Slim’s Cafe about the cafe’s refusal to buy fair
trade coffee beans. Toby has brought along some cartons filled with Petrol
intending to damage the cafe if necessary. Annoyed at the general
indifference to their protest, Andrew decides that he needs to attract
some attention to the protest. He uses a marker pen and writes the
message, ‘Boycott Traders Failing to Support Fair Trade’ on the front
window of Slim’s Cafe. Toby makes a phone call to the manager, Jacob, of
the Slim’s Cafe and says, ‘Close the cafe or I will burn it when you least
expect!’ Jacob replies, ‘Yeah right, I’m not frightened of you or anyone.
You’re a right idiot!’
Andrew sees Olly and Nichola walking toward the Slim Cafe. He rushes at
Nichola swinging a small mallet handle over his head in a menacing
manner and shouts ‘Come on! let’s hear your support’. Nichola believes
she is about to be struck with the mallet handle. She wants to jump out of
the way but sees she is standing next to a dog. Nichola tries to avoid it
but lands on the dog, breaking its leg.
At this point, Olly steps between Nichola and Andrew. He grabs Andrew
firmly by the arm, and pulls him away from Nichola. In doing so, Andrew
takes a punch at Olly but misses and puts his fist through a nearby glass
pane on a bus shelter causing it to shatter. Andrew flees into a nearby
supermarket. Annoyed, Toby sets light to his petrol-filled cartons and
throws then into the cafe. The cafe is quickly engulfed in flames and is
badly damaged but no one is hurt.
Pete, a concerned citizen, observes Andrew’s acts and decides to try and
apprehend him as he runs through the supermarket. After a short chase,
Pete catches up with Andrew and jumps on him, cutting his neck with his
watch. The cut is bleeding and requires several stitches.
Please advise the parties on their criminal liability, if any. Use decided
cases and relevant statutory provisions in support of your answer.
Answer
The most efficient manner in which to deal with the numerous issues
raised by this scenario is, rather than consider each of the characters in
turn, move through the issues chronologically.
, The first matter to be considered is Toby’s behaviour when he brought the
cartons of petrol to the protest. Toby’s intention in this context was to
cause damage to the café if necessary. Section 1 of the Criminal Damage
Act 1971 provides that it is an offence to, without lawful excuse, damage
property belonging to another, intending or being reckless to whether the
property will be damaged. The elements of this offence will be considered
in more detail below because at this stage no damage has occurred to
property. The relevance here however is that under section 1 of the
Criminal Attempts Act 1981 a person is guilty of committing an offence if,
with the intent to carry out the offence, they do something that is more
than merely preparatory to its commission.
The actus reus of an attempt requires something more than merely
preparatory to have been done. This is clearly a question of fact,[1] but it
seems that the question the jury must answer is whether the defendant
has taken real steps towards committing the crime.[2] In other words, being
equipped to carry out a crime may not be considered as only preparatory
thus not making the defendant liable.[3] It can be seen that the position is a
difficult one, in that when filling the cartons with petrol Toby was certainly
preparing to commit the crime, but it may be that once he took the
cartons to the coffee shop, his acts became more than merely
preparatory,[4] but it could also be found that this was itself only
preparatory.[5] The mens rea element of the offence is less problematic in
that nothing less than specific intent to commit the offence will suffice.
[6]
That is, the defendant must desire the offence to be the consequence of
their actions.[7]
The reality of the situation here is that whilst Toby may be liable for
attempted criminal damage, his subsequent actions make such a
consideration irrelevant. Before considering Toby’s further liability the
next chronological act must be considered. This is Andrew’s writing on the
coffee shop window. In this respect, more detailed consideration of the
requirements of criminal damage is necessary. Real property is property
for the purposes of this offence[8] and where another person has a
proprietary right in the property or has control over it, the property is
considered as belonging to another.[9] There is no doubt on these facts that
the coffee shop meets these requirements and therefore the next, and
most problematic issue, here is whether writing on the window constitutes
damage.
The Criminal Damage Act 1971 does not define damage and therefore the
matter has been left to the courts largely as a question of fact.[10] Despite
this, it is clear that damage need not be permanent in order to satisfy the
Act[11] and indeed, in Hardman v Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset[12],
it was held that drawing on pavements with water soluble crayons was
still capable of constituting criminal damage. An analogy with that
judgment and the current facts can easily be drawn and therefore, even
though it may be possible for the writing on the window to be easily
removed, it seems probable that Andrew will satisfy the actus reus
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