Court of Criminal Appeal

Date01 July 1941
DOI10.1177/002201834100500304
Published date01 July 1941
Subject MatterArticle
Court
of
Criminal
Appeal
TREACHERY
ACT, 1940
R. v. O'Grady
IN
this case the Court of Criminal Appeal had to con-
sider whether there was any distinction between the
intent required in order to prove an offence
under
section I
of the Treachery Act, 1940, and the intent necessary for
proof of an offence under section Iof the Official Secrets
Act,
191
I.
The
material terms of Treachery Act, 1940, are
:-
"
If
with intent to help the enemy any person
does
...
"
Section Iof the Official Secrets Act, 1911, provides
:-
"
If
any person for any purpose prejudicial to the
safety or interest of the State."
The
case before the Court was the appeal of one Dorothy
Pamela O'Grady, who had been convicted on the 17th
December, 1940, before Macnaghten J. at Winchester Assizes
on an indictment containing counts alleging contravention of
both
of the above Acts and also of the Defence (General)
Regulations, 1939, and had been sentenced to death, this
being the penalty provided for breach of section Iof the
Treachery Act, 1940.
The
facts giving rise to these charges
were
that
the appellant had prepared a
number
of plans
and
had cut amilitary telephone wire.
In
his summing up to
the
jury
Macnaghten J. had told
them
that
the state of
mind
necessary to convict aperson of an offence
under
the Treachery
Act was " precisely the
same"
as
that
for an offence
under
the Official Secrets Act. •
The
case came before the Court of Criminal Appeal
(Lord
Caldecote C.J. Humphreys
and
Tucker
JJ.)
on the
p

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