Sentences with phrase «public element of the offence»

The two person rule in respect of establishing the public element of the offence of outraging public decency contrary to the common law can be satisfied if there were two or more people present who were capable of seeing the nature of the act, even if they did not actually see it.

Not exact matches

With these criticisms in mind, the latest in a long line of cases, R v Hamilton [2007] EWCA Crim 2026, [2007] All ER (D) 99 (Aug), merits consideration to determine what light it throws, if any, on the elements of the offence of outraging public decency.

Because being a zealous advocate within the bounds of the law means that, some lawyers, some of the time, will be professionally obligated to do things the public does not like Some lawyers, some of the time, will act for people the public (correctly) assumes to have committed the factual and mental elements of the offence with which they are charged.

However, if a public welfare offence, where jail was a possible sanction, required no fault element as in an absolute liability offence, this violated s. 7 of the Charter and was deemed unconstitutional.

It was accepted that the elements of the offence were twofold: (i) there had to be contemptuous, reviling, scurrilous and / or ludicrous material relating to God, Christ, the Bible or the formularies of the Church of England; and (ii) the publication had to be such as tended to endanger society as a whole, by endangering the peace, depraving public morality, shaking the fabric of society or tending to cause civil strife.

The public element in the offence was satisfied if the act was done where people were present and the nature of what was being done was capable of being seen; the principle was that the public were to be protected from obscene or disgusting acts which were of a nature that outraged public decency and which were capable of being seen in public.

Those cases established that if the offence of outraging public decency was to be proved, it was necessary to prove two elements: first, that the act was of such a lewd character as to outrage public decency; that element constituted the nature of the act which had to be proved before the offence could be established.