''Anderton v Ryan''
985
Year 985 ( CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* Summer – Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theo ...
is a
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...
case in
English criminal law
English criminal law concerns offences, their prevention and the consequences, in England and Wales. Criminal conduct is considered to be a wrong against the whole of a community, rather than just the private individuals affected. The state, in ...
(in the highest court of the land at the time), on whether an act which would amount to an offence but which by virtue of a misunderstanding of the goods involved was impossible (nonetheless a
fully believed offence by the perpetrator at the time, specifically of purchasing posited stolen goods) breaks section 1 of the
Criminal Attempts Act 1981
The Criminal Attempts Act 1981 (c 47) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It applies to England and Wales and creates criminal offences pertaining to attempting to commit crimes. It abolished the common law offence of attempt.
P ...
; the court established against a similar defendant the next year that the reverse should hold true in future (per ''
R v Shivpuri
''R v Shivpuri'' 986UKHL 2 is a House of Lords case in English law as to whether a criminal attempt which had a "more than merely preparatory act" and mens rea of an inchoate stage but of a crime which transpired to be impossible (or rendered la ...
'').
Facts
A woman purchased a video cassette recorder (VCR) on the belief that it was stolen. She reported an unrelated burglary in her house to the police. While they were investigating the burglary, she confessed to having purchased the VCR she believed to be stolen. No evidence was found to confirm that the VCR had been stolen. She was convicted of attempted handling of stolen goods.
Judgment
The court convened 13 months and five days after the law-reported decision of the quickly referred conviction to the Divisional Court of the High Court, Queens Bench Division (from the local magistrates initial decision). The skipping out of the Court of Appeal is as the case was cleared in timetables and administratively for a "leapfrog appeal" (direct to the House of Lords).
The House of Lords decided that impossibility was not within the scope of the offence under s1(2) of the Criminal Attempts Act (nor any other residual offence from earlier legal precedents).
Significance
The case ''
R v Shivpuri
''R v Shivpuri'' 986UKHL 2 is a House of Lords case in English law as to whether a criminal attempt which had a "more than merely preparatory act" and mens rea of an inchoate stage but of a crime which transpired to be impossible (or rendered la ...
'' reversed the decision a year later and represents an example of the House of Lords Judicial Committee reversing its jurisprudence
under the
Practice Statement 1966.
See also
*
English criminal law
English criminal law concerns offences, their prevention and the consequences, in England and Wales. Criminal conduct is considered to be a wrong against the whole of a community, rather than just the private individuals affected. The state, in ...
Notes
{{Reflist
English criminal case law
House of Lords cases
1987 in case law
1987 in British law