Every accessory before the fact to any such felony may be indicted, convicted, and sentenced, either before or after the trial of the principal felon, or together with such felon, or indicted, convicted, and sentenced, as a principal in the felony, and shall be liable in either case to the same punishment as the principal felon, whether the principal felon has been tried or not, or is amenable to justice or not.
No doubt a count such as the one upon which the accused were charged in this case is permitted by that section, but the legislation from which it is derived was directed against the old distinction between accessories and principals which meant that no accessory could be convicted or suffer any punishment where the principal was not attainted or had the benefit of clergy: see Accessories and Abettors Act 1861 UK, ss. 1 and 2; Stephen's History of the Criminal Law of England (1883) vol. II, pp. 235-236. The section was not intended to give rise to a form of pleading different to that used at common law in which the proper course was to specify the degree of participation of each accused - whether as principal or accessory - when they were joined in the same indictment for the same offence: see Chitty's Criminal Law, 2nd ed. (1826) vol. II, pp. 4a-5a. The aim in framing an indictment should, in fairness, be that everyone, particularly the accused, knows the nature of the charge brought against him. In most cases where an accessory is indicted together with the principal this can best be achieved by charging the accessory in a manner which specifies his participation in the offence. Even where an accessory is indicted alone such a form of pleading is ordinarily preferable: see Giorgianni v The Queen [37] ; Reg. v Maxwell [38] . No doubt there will be cases in which the degree of participation of the offenders is not known so that it is appropriate to charge them all as principals (see Reg. v Sperotto [39] ), but it is not a practice to be followed where it can be avoided. In this case it should have been possible for the Crown to have specified how it was that King was charged with the offence alleged against him.
1. (1985) 156 C.L.R. 473, at p. 497.
2. [1978] 1 W.L.R. 1350; [1978] 3 All E.R. 1140.
3. (1970) 71 S.R. (N.S.W.) 334.