Criminal Code Act 1899

This Act may be cited as the Criminal Code Act 1899.

On and from 1 January 1901, the provisions contained in the Code of Criminal Law set forth in schedule 1 (the Code) shall be the law of Queensland with respect to the several matters therein dealt with.

The said Code may be cited as the Criminal Code.

However—

the repeal of any statute or part of a statute set forth in the schedules shall not affect the construction of any other statute, or of any other part of the same statute, whether as regards the past or the future;

when any enactment not mentioned in the schedules has been repealed, confirmed, revived, or perpetuated, by any enactment hereby repealed, such repeal, confirmation, reviver, or perpetuation, shall not be affected by the repeal effected by this Act;

this Act shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect, or consequences, of anything already done or suffered, or any existing status or capacity, or any right, title, obligation, or liability, civil or criminal, already acquired, accrued, or incurred, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof, or any release or discharge of or from any debt, penalty, obligation, liability, claim, or demand, or any indemnity, or the proof of any past act or thing; and any action, prosecution, or other proceeding, begun before the coming into operation of the Code, may, subject to the provisions of the Code, be continued as if this Act had not been passed; and any action, prosecution, or other proceeding, in respect of anything done or omitted to be done before the coming into operation of the Code, may, subject to the provisions of the Code, be brought, taken, and prosecuted, in the same manner as if this Act had not been passed;

this Act shall not, except as expressly therein declared, affect any principle or rule of law or equity, or established jurisdiction, or form or course of pleading, practice, or procedure, notwithstanding that the same respectively may have been in any manner affirmed, recognised or derived, by, in, or from, any enactment hereby repealed;

this Act shall not revive or restore any jurisdiction, duty, liability, right, title, privilege, restriction, exemption, usage, practice, procedure, form of punishment, or other matter or thing, not now existing or in force.

From and after the coming into operation of the Code, the following rules shall apply with respect to the construction of statutes, statutory rules, by-laws, and other instruments, that is to say—

when in any statute, statutory rule, by-law, or other instrument, public or private, the term felony is used, or reference is made to an offence by the name of felony, it shall be taken that reference is intended to an offence which is a crime under the provisions of the Code;

when in any statute, statutory rule, by-law, or other instrument, public or private, the term murder is used, it shall be taken that reference is intended to the crimes of wilful murder and murder and each of them;

when in any statute, statutory rule, by-law, or other instrument, public or private, the term larceny is used, it shall be taken that reference is intended to the crime of stealing;

when in any statute, statutory rule, by-law, or other instrument, public or private, reference is made to any offence by any specific name, it shall be intended that reference is intended to the offence which, under the provisions of the Code, is constituted by the act or omission that would heretofore have constituted the offence referred to;

when in any statute, statutory rule, by-law, or other instrument, public or private, reference is made to any of the statutory provisions hereby repealed, it shall be taken that reference is intended to the corresponding provisions or substituted provisions of the Code.

From and after the coming into operation of the Code, no person shall be liable to be tried or punished in Queensland as for an indictable offence except under the express provisions of the Code or some other statute law of Queensland, or under the express provisions of some statute of the United Kingdom which is expressly applied to Queensland, or which is in force in all parts of the Sovereign’s dominions not expressly excepted from its operation, or which authorises the trial and punishment in Queensland of offenders who have at places not in Queensland committed offences against the laws of the United Kingdom.

When by the Code any act is declared to be lawful, no action can be brought in respect thereof.

A person who suffers loss or injury in, or in connection with, the commission of an indictable offence of which the person is found guilty has no right of action against another person for the loss or injury.

Subsection (2) applies whether or not a conviction is recorded for the offence.

Except as aforesaid, the provisions of this Act shall not affect any right of action which any person would have had against another if this Act had not been passed, nor shall the omission from the Code of any penal provision in respect of any act or omission which before the time of the coming into operation of the Code constituted an actionable wrong affect any right of action in respect thereof.

When an offender is punishable under the provisions of the Code, and also under the provisions of some other statute, the offender may be prosecuted and convicted under the provisions either of the Code or of such other statute, so that the offender is not twice punished for the same offence.

Nothing in this Act or in the Code shall affect the authority of courts of record to punish a person summarily for the offence commonly known as ‘contempt of court’, but so that a person can not be so punished and also punished under the provisions of the Code for the same act or omission.

An act or omission which renders the person doing the act or making the omission liable to punishment is called an offence.

Offences are of 2 kinds, namely, criminal offences and regulatory offences.

Criminal offences comprise crimes, misdemeanours and simple offences.

Crimes and misdemeanours are indictable offences; that is to say, the offenders can not, unless otherwise expressly stated, be prosecuted or convicted except upon indictment.

A person guilty of a regulatory offence or a simple offence may be summarily convicted by a Magistrates Court.

An offence not otherwise designated is a simple offence. sch 1 pt 1 ch 1 s 3 sub 1985 No. 32 s 10 (a)

When a person, intending to commit an offence, begins to put the person’s intention into execution by means adapted to its fulfilment, and manifests the person’s intention by some overt act, but does not fulfil the person’s intention to such an extent as to commit the offence, the person is said to attempt to commit the offence.

It is immaterial, except so far as regards punishment, whether the offender does all that is necessary on the offender’s part for completing the commission of the offence, or whether the complete fulfilment of the offender’s intention is prevented by circumstances independent of his or her will, or whether the offender desists of his or her own motion from the further prosecution of the offender’s intention.

It is immaterial that by reason of circumstances not known to the offender it is impossible in fact to commit the offence.

The same facts may constitute one offence and an attempt to commit another offence.