Parties to an offence

Contributed by Bill de Mars and Judith Fordham and current to 1 September 2005

Although most persons charged with offences are ‘principal offenders’, ancillary criminal responsibility can attach to those who may not directly have committed the offence but were sufficiently indirectly involved. Thus a person is just as guilty as the principal offender if he or she is shown to have aided or counselled another to commit an offence (s.7 Criminal Code). It is also an offence to assist a person after an offence has been committed (s.10), or, having formed an intention to commit a certain type offence with another person, to then participate in events that lead, as a probable consequence, to a different type of offence being committed by the other person (s.8).