(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 was preserved, subject to those exceptions established by cases decided before the Act was passed. The word ‘unlawful’ in the subsection meant ‘illicit’, ie outside marriage.
Judges:
Rougier J
Citations:
[1991] 1 All ER 759
Statutes:
Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1976 1(1), Sexual Offences Act 1956 1
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Applied – Regina v Chapman CCA 1958
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 . .
Cited by:
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: 28 January 2022; Ref: scu.194941
