Serious Crime Bill [HL]

I speak to Amendment No. 101A in slight trepidation after the googly bowled at us by the noble Baroness. With the caveat that she has raised a compelling point that we should consider carefully, I say that the amendment has been proposed to us by Liberty, as she rightly said. It would create a new defence, to apply where a person is the principal victim of the offence that he encouraged or assisted and where no other person suffered significant harm from the offence. We are concerned that the new offences could inadvertently lead to a victim of crime being convicted of the crime committed against him. We have an example: two men have a drunken argument in a pub and Mr A says to Mr B, ““Go on then, if you’re so tough, punch me””. Mr B then punches Mr A repeatedly, causing Mr B grievous bodily harm. In that case, Mr B could be prosecuted for grievous bodily harm. What is strange is thatMr A, the victim of the attack, could also be prosecuted and receive the same sentence as Mr B, because Mr A’s jibe, ““Go on then, if you’re so tough, punch me””, was an act capable of encouraging the attack that Mr A intended to, or believed might, occur. I know that the food in some pubs is not as good as in others, but fortunately we are not talking about any further offences, the likes of which were raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay. We do not believe that the Government should criminalise victims in that way. One would think that, in such a case, the victim would already have suffered enough without facing the possibility of a prosecution. The act of provocation would often be relevant to determine the appropriate sanction for the perpetrator of the principal offence. Under the current law, such provocation would commonly be taken into account as a mitigating factor impacting on the sentence imposed. We can see why it would be wrong that all victims of an offence who had encouraged or assisted it should escape liability. For example, a minor shareholder should not escape liability if he persuades a company director to embezzle company assets in order to seek revenge against the major shareholder. The minor shareholder would not be able to rely on the proposed offence, but he would not be the principal victim and target of the offence. The defence also recognises that, where acts of provocation lead to third parties being injured, criminal liability may be appropriate—for example, where a person knowingly provokes another person with a sub-machine gun to start firing into a crowded room. We want to hear what the Minister has to say about this proposed offence. As I said, having heard the compelling point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, we will probably be finessing this matter in due course.