Kidnapping at common law is a continuing offence: the 'taking' continues until the compulsion ceases, and a person who participates in an ongoing taking may be convicted even if the offence was already complete in law at the time of their participation. An anti-propensity direction is not required where evidence of prior criminal conduct is inextricably linked to the motive for the charged offences and there is no real risk of propensity reasoning. The rule against controverting an acquittal does not require exclusion of evidence of participation in a prior offence where there is no manifest inconsistency between the evidence and the acquittal, and the trial judge has no obligation to direct the jury about an acquittal that was not placed in evidence. The question whether a person who joins an ongoing kidnapping commits the same offence or a new discrete offence was left open.
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