Conspiracy to defeat justice

CRIMES ACT 1914 — SECT 42

Con­spir­a­cy to defeat jus­tice

(1)  A per­son com­mits an offence if:

(a)  the per­son con­spires with anoth­er per­son to obstruct, to pre­vent, to per­vert or to defeat the course of jus­tice in rela­tion to a judi­cial pow­er; and

(b)  the judi­cial pow­er is the judi­cial pow­er of the Com­mon­wealth.

Penal­ty:  Impris­on­ment for 10 years.

(2)  Absolute lia­bil­i­ty applies to the para­graph   (1)(b) ele­ment of the offence.

Note:  For absolute lia­bil­i­ty, see sec­tion   6.2 of the Crim­i­nal Code .

(3)  For a per­son to be guilty of an offence against sub­sec­tion   (1):

(a)  the per­son must have entered into an agree­ment with one or more oth­er per­sons; and

(b)  the per­son and at least one oth­er par­ty to the agree­ment must have intend­ed to obstruct, pre­vent, per­vert or defeat the course of jus­tice pur­suant to the agree­ment; and

©  the per­son or at least one oth­er par­ty to the agree­ment must have com­mit­ted an overt act pur­suant to the agree­ment.

(4)  A per­son may be found guilty of an offence against sub­sec­tion   (1) even if:

(a)  obstruct­ing, pre­vent­ing, per­vert­ing or defeat­ing the course of jus­tice pur­suant to the agree­ment is impos­si­ble; or

(b)  the only oth­er par­ty to the agree­ment is a body cor­po­rate; or

©  each oth­er par­ty to the agree­ment is a per­son who is not crim­i­nal­ly respon­si­ble; or

(d)  sub­ject to sub­sec­tion   (5), all oth­er par­ties to the agree­ment have been acquit­ted of the offence.

(5)  A per­son can­not be found guilty of an offence against sub­sec­tion   (1) if:

(a)  all oth­er par­ties to the agree­ment have been acquit­ted of such an offence; and

(b)  a find­ing of guilt would be incon­sis­tent with their acquit­tal.

(6)  A per­son can­not be found guilty of an offence against sub­sec­tion   (1) if, before the com­mis­sion of an overt act pur­suant to the agree­ment, the per­son:

(a)  with­drew from the agree­ment; and

(b)  took all rea­son­able steps to pre­vent the obstruc­tion, pre­ven­tion, per­ver­sion or defeat.

(7)  A court may dis­miss a charge of an offence against sub­sec­tion   (1) if the court thinks that the inter­ests of jus­tice require the court to do so.

(8)  Sec­tion   11.1 of the Crim­i­nal Code does not apply to an offence against sub­sec­tion   (1).