The Assizes
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835602000102 |
| Published date | 01 January 1956 |
| Date | 01 January 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Assizes
INDECENT ASSAULT; ASSAULT
WITH
INDECENT MOTIVE BUT
WITHOUT
OVERT INDECENCY
R. v.
George
INthis case a question was raised, on which different views
appear to have been taken by courts in
the
Dominions,
namely, whether an assault with an indecent motive in the
mind of the prisoner,
but
without any overt act of indecency,
can constitute an indecent assault.
At Lincoln Assizes on 3rd November, 1955,
the
defendant
was charged before Streatfeild J. on an indictment containing
four counts.
Two
counts charged indecent assault, each on a
different girl and on a different date. Each of the other two
counts charged him with larceny of a shoe belonging, respec-
tively, to each of the girls.
The
evidence in
the
depositions,
which included statements by the defendant, showed
that
on
each occasion the defendant had attempted to remove a shoe
from the girl's foot and that he had done this because it gave
him akind of perverted sexual gratification.
On
each of
the
counts charging indecent assault the defendant pleaded guilty
to common assault, and he pleaded
Not
Guilty to each of the
counts charging attempted larceny.
Counsel for the prosecution said
that
he was unwilling
to accept the defendant's pleas to common assault because,
in his submission, there was authority for
the
proposition
that
an assault became indecent if it were committed to gratify
an indecent motive in the mind of the defendant, even though
there were no overt circumstances of indecency.
Streatfeild J. said
that
he would rule that an assault
became indecent only if it was accompanied by circumstances
of indecency towards the person alleged to have been assaulted
(see Beal v. Kelley (1951)
W.N.
5°5;
35 Cr.
App.
R.
128),
and
that
neither of the assaults charged in
the
present case
could amount to an indecent assault. Counsel for the prosecu-
tion said that, in view of
that
ruling, he would accept the pleas
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