Criminal Law Code as at 1st March 2007
(d) he or she believed on reasonable grounds that he or she could not escape from or resist
the threat referred to in paragraph (a) and that his or her conduct was necessary to
avert the implementation of the threat; and
(e) by his or her conduct he or she did no more harm than was reasonably necessary to
avert the implementation of the threat referred to in paragraph (a), and no more harm
than was unlawfully threatened.
(2) Where a person voluntarily associates himself or herself with one or more other persons
knowing or realising that there is a real risk or possibility that they will involve him or her in the
commission of a crime, any threat made against him or her by one or more of those other
persons for the purpose of inducing him or her to commit a crime shall be deemed, for the
purpose of paragraph (c) of subsection (1), to have been brought about through his or her own
fault.
244
Additional requirements for compulsion to be complete defence to murder
(1) Subject to subsection (3), the fact that a person accused of murder was subjected to
compulsion when he or she did or omitted to do anything that is an essential element of the
crime shall not be a complete defence to the charge unless the following requirements are
satisfied in addition to those specified in paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) of subsection (1) of section
two hundred and forty-three⎯
(a) the compulsion took the form of a threat unlawfully to kill the accused or some other
person immediately if the accused did not kill or assist in killing the deceased; and
(b) the accused could not escape from or resist the threat referred to in paragraph (a); and
(c) the accused had no warning of the threat referred to in paragraph (a) to enable him or
her to forestall it, whether by reporting the matter to the police or by other means.
(2) If the requirements referred to or specified in subsection (1) are satisfied, the defence of
compulsion shall be a complete defence to a charge of murder, whether the accused is charged
as an actual perpetrator or as an accomplice.
PART XII
CONSENT
245
Requirements for consent to be complete defence
(1) Subject to this Part, where a person consents to any conduct which is likely to cause
harm to his or her person, proprietary rights or other interests, his or her consent shall be a
complete defence to a charge against any other person alleging the commission of a crime of
which that conduct forms an essential element, if⎯
(a) the interests of the community as a whole are not adversely affected by the conduct to
any substantial degree; and
(b) the consent is given prior to the conduct, not as ratification afterwards; and
(c) the person who gives the consent is⎯
(i) capable in law of giving such consent; and
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