The Promotion Exams
| Published date | 01 November 1963 |
| Date | 01 November 1963 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032258X6303601107 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
SUPERINTENDENT
J.
DANIEL
DEVLIN,
LL.B.
Of
the Southend-on-Sea Constabulary and the Directing
Staff
of
the
Police College.
The eleventh
of
a series
of
articles
of
interest to examination candidates
and all concerned with training. .
THE
PROMOTION
EXAMS
XI
.•.
BREAKING OFFENCES (concluded)
It
was seen in the previous article that the elements of burglary are
five-fold. Breaking and entering were dealt with last month and it
is now necessary to consider the remainder.
In the Night
The phrase is defined by s. 46 (which was set out in last month's
article) and no difficulty arises. Although the breaking and entering
must occur in the night, they need not occur in the same night.
So, if a person breaks a window in the night in order to enter and
steal, and is disturbed before he can enter, he will be guilty
of
burglary should he return to the house on another night and enter
in order to complete the crime: R. v. Smith (1820) R. &R. 417.
But if a man broke a window during the day and returned later,
when it was night, and entered he would not be guilty of burglary,
for the breaking and entering would not have both occurred at
night.
A point which one often hears argued concerns the situation
when an entry or a felony during the day is followed by a breaking
out at night. Does a criminal, for instance, who enters a dwelling
house at 8.45p.m. (in the daytime) and who breaks out at 9.15 p.m.
(in the night) commit burglary? The question has not been authori-
tatively decided,
but
at least one writer takes the view that the
circumstances amount to burglary (e.g. Kenny, para. 215).
Dwelling-house
A dwelling-house is a " permanent building in which the tenant
or owner and his family dwell and
lie":
Archbold, para. 1807.
So, a tent or caravan is
not
a dwelling-house because these are
moveable structures and
not
permanent. Every permanent building
is
not
a dwelling-house, however; it can only be so described if
someone dwells there. Thus a house, newly-built, and
not
yet
November
1963 552
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