Indecent Assaults a Summary of the Legal Aspect
| Author | R. H. Ashworth |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4501800310 |
| Published date | 01 July 1945 |
| Date | 01 July 1945 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
INDECENT
ASSAULTS
211
for such offences, should be prepared. Police officers should be em-
powered to issue, in respect of any such offences committed within
their view, a form of account setting out the offence and the appropriate
penalty. Where there are independent witnesses they should also
sign the form.
The
account should be payable at a certain office
(probably that of the Clerk to the Justices) within a set time unless the
recipient wishes to defend the case.
In
the latter event he must so
notify the same office within the same period,
and
information would
then be laid, and the case proceeded with, in the normal manner.
I am well aware of the objections to the idea as a whole,
but
it is
certain
that
something will have to be done to ease the extra pressure
which will otherwise fall upon the courts, and therefore Ithink the
scheme which I have outlined has its commendable points.
The
working details would not present much difficulty.
I have confined my remarks to Road Traffic offences,
but
the
practice could easily be adopted or adapted in respect of other minor
offences.
Indecent Assaults
A Summary of the Legal Aspect
By
SERGEANT
R. H.
ASHWORTH
West
Riding
Constabulary
WHAT
IS
AN
INDECENT
ASSAULT?
THE RE is no statutory definition!
Perhaps the persons responsible for the drafting of the Offences
against the Person Act,
1861,
thought it was unnecessary!
However, adefinition is always useful as it embodies the points
of proof. We cannot examine the definition in this case,
but
we read
in
"Archbold"
that the necessary evidence
is-"
Prove an assault
accompanied with circumstances of indecency on the part of the
defendant.',
An assault is, " An attempt or offer by force or violence to do
bodily injury to another."
The
person charged must, of course, be
physically capable of carrying out the intention.
It
would therefore be
impossible to charge such a person as a paralytic with an assault.
What of the indecency? A dictionary defines the word "
In-
decent"
as " Something which is offensive to modesty and delicacy."
The
degree of indecency in these cases is not something which can be
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