FLK2 · Criminal Liability

Inchoate offences & parties (attempt, accomplices)

SQE1 revision notes — the key rules, leading cases and common traps for this topic, in plain English and current to 2026.

CRL.10 — Inchoate Offences & Parties

Inchoate offences punish steps towards a crime even if the full offence never happens. Parties law catches those who help or join in an offence committed by another.

Attempt (Criminal Attempts Act 1981, s.1)

Definition: doing an act that is more than merely preparatory to the commission of an indictable offence, with intent to commit it.

Actus reus — "more than merely preparatory." The act need not be the last act, but mere preparation is not enough. R v Gullefer (got on the track but not the running); R v Geddes (lurking in school toilets with kit = merely preparatory); R v Jones (pointing loaded gun = sufficient).
Mens rea — intention to commit the full offence (direct or oblique). For attempted murder, nothing less than intent to kill suffices (Whybrow) — intent to cause GBH is not enough, even though it is for murder itself.
Conditional intent counts (intending to steal whatever is worth taking).
Impossibility is NO defence (s.1(2)–(3)): you can attempt the impossible (Shivpuri — believing a substance was drugs; R v Jones (1990) line). Factual and legal-mistake impossibility both caught, but you cannot "attempt" something that is not in law a crime.
Cannot attempt most summary-only offences, attempt itself, conspiracy, or aiding/abetting.

Accomplices / Secondary Parties (Accessories and Abettors Act 1861, s.8)

A person who aids, abets, counsels or procures an offence is liable as a principal.

Actus reus — assistance or encouragement (procuring needs a causal link — Attorney-General's Reference (No 1 of 1975), spiking drinks). Mere presence is not enough unless it actually encourages (Clarkson).
Mens rea (post-Jogee) — R v Jogee [2016] abolished "parasitic accessory liability." The accessory must intend to assist/encourage AND intend (or know the essential matters) that P will act with the requisite mens rea. Foresight of what P might do is now only evidence of intent, not a separate test.

Key traps

Attempt MR ≠ full-offence MR for murder (intent to kill only).
"More than merely preparatory" vs preparation — fact-sensitive; learn Geddes/Gullefer.
Impossibility defeats attempt arguments — it is no defence.
Post-Jogee: foresight is evidence, not the test — don't apply the old Chan Wing-Siu foresight standard.
Withdrawal: an accessory can avoid liability by timely and unequivocal communication of withdrawal (more needed for spontaneous violence).
A secondary party can be convicted even if the principal is acquitted (e.g. principal has a defence), provided the offence's actus reus occurred.

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A woman is the treasurer of a small amateur football club. Members pay £20 each month in cash. Under the club rules she accepted on becoming treasurer, she must bank the subscriptions into the club's dedicated account within seven days. One month she receives £200 in subscriptions and spends the cash on her own gas bill that same day. She intends to replace the money from her wages before anyone notices, and pays an equivalent £200 into the club account two weeks later. Which statement best explains how section 5(3) of the Theft Act 1968 applies to the subscriptions when she pays the gas bill?

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