The court accepted that the word `unlawfully’ in relation to carnal knowledge had in many early statutes not been used with any degree of precision, and he referred to a number of enactments making it a felony unlawfully and carnally to know any woman-child under the age of 10. ‘One would think that all intercourse with a child under ten would be unlawful; and on that footing the word would be mere surplusage.’
Citations:
[1958] 3 WLR 401, [1959] 1 QB 100, [1958] 3 All ER 143
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Applied – Regina v J (rape: marital exemption) Crwn 1991
(Crown Ct at Teesside) A husband was charged with having raped his wife, from whom he was living apart at the time.
Held: The charge was bad. s 1(1)(a) of the 1976 Act had the effect that the marital exemption embodied in Hale’s proposition . .
Cited – Regina v R HL 23-Oct-1991
H has no right to sexual intercourse with W – rape
The defendant appealed against his conviction for having raped his wife, saying that intercourse with his wife was necessarily lawful, and therefore outside the statutory definition of rape. Due to the matrimonial difficulties, the wife had left . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Crime
Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.194939