10. Inchoate offences

Glanville Williams described an inchoate offence as an act done with the purpose of effecting some other offence. The three are attempt, conspiracy and incitement. The external element is different in each. An attempt requires a voluntary act that gets relatively close to the completed crime. A conspiracy requires an agreement of at least two people. Incitement requires encouragement that persuades another to commit the crime.

Conspiracy is the agreement of two or more persons to do an unlawful act, or to do a lawful act by unlawful means. Mulcahy v R is the statement. So long as the design rests in intention only, it is not indictable. When two agree to carry it into effect, the plot is itself an act. Walker is the same point. A mere intention is not a conspiracy. The agreement may be inferred from conduct. Nothing more has to be done. Aspinall says the crime is complete the moment two or more have agreed, even if they repent or are stopped. Conspiracy is tried in the High Court.

In Sierra Leone this is a common-law offence. In England, section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977, amended by the Criminal Attempts Act 1981, put statutory conspiracy in the place of most of the common-law offence. The common-law definition is the one used here.

If the person incited agrees, both are guilty of conspiracy. If that person then commits the crime, the inciter is also an accessory. If the inciter uses an innocent agent, and the agent does the act, the inciter is the principal, not an inciter. If the agent does not go through with it, the liability is for an attempt to incite. There is no offence of attempting to aid and abet, and no offence of attempting to conspire. There can be an attempt to incite.

An attempt requires intention. Manslaughter, which can be committed without an intention to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm, is not attempted. A crime whose actus reus is an omission is in the same position. Impossibility is a difficulty of its own. The older tests, proximity and equivocality, asked whether the acts were close enough to the crime, and whether they spoke unmistakably of that crime. The Criminal Attempts Act 1981 is the English statute. It is not restated here as a Sierra Leone Act.