Kidnapping or false imprisonment
From CrimeLine from Andrew Keogh
CPS Sentencing: Kidnapping False Imprisonment
Times on Line Law Report abduction and false imprisonment
False imprisonment is a common law offence and is an indictable only offence The offence carries a sentence of life imprisonment. It is an offence of basic intent and therefore evidence of the accused’s voluntary intoxication is irrelevant. Blackstone’s B2.62.
"False imprisonment consists in the unlawful and intentional or reckless restraint of a victim's freedom of movement from a particular place - it is unlawful detention which stops the victim from moving away as he or she would wish to move." Archbold 19-331
Francis, R v (15th January, 1998)
Francis, R v [1998] EWCA Crim 92 (15th January, 1998) In the written grounds before this Court, complaint is made first of the judge's direction on the law relating to false imprisonment. After reading count 1 to the jury and drawing to their attention that it alleged that the applicant had assaulted and unlawfully and injuriously imprisoned B and detained him against his will, the Recorder said this:
- "What is false imprisonment? Members of the jury it consists, first of all, of the unlawful and intentional or reckless restraint of a person's freedom of movement from a particular place."
He then said, and it is this next sentence of which complaint is made:
- "In other words, it is an unlawful detention which stops a person moving away and acting as he would wish."
The complaint of that last sentence to which we have just referred is that the evidence was not that B had been prevented from moving from a particular place but was ordered to drive around from place to place; he had not been confined to a particular place. We see no merit whatsoever in that complaint, particularly when one sees that two sentences later the Recorder said this:
- "Obviously false imprisonment may take many forms. At one extreme it may consist of a literal imprisonment of an individual within walls and behind bars. It may also consist of the restraint of an individual's movement, not within a single place of confinement but upon the restriction of his movement accompanied by violence, or the threat of violence, which makes the person the effective prisoner of a particular person who is committing this offence."
We agree with the single judge when he said that he could not fault the Recorder's direction on false imprisonment.
Section 62 Sexual Offences Act 2003: Committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence
Section 62 makes it an offence for a person (A) intentionally to commit any criminal offence with intent to commit any relevant sexual offence as defined in subsection (2). This offence is intended to capture the situation where (A) commits a criminal offence but does so with the intention of committing a subsequent sexual offence, regardless of whether or not the substantive sexual offence is committed. It would apply, for example, where (A) kidnaps (B) so that he can rape him but is caught by the police before committing the rape. It would also apply where (A) detained (B) in his flat with this intention, or assaulted (B) to subdue him so that he could more easily rape him. If (A) does commit the intended offence, he could be charged with the substantive sexual offence in addition to this offence.
Tort of false imprisonment
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