TABLE OF CONTENTS
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• Indictable offences – such as rape, robbery and murder; • Summary offences – such as insulting behaviour, common assault and indecent exposure; • Offences triable either way – such as theft, criminal damage (depending on the value of the property damaged), assault occasioning bodily harm contrary to s 47 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, and indecent assault. Indictable offences are triable only in the Crown Court before a judge and jury. Summary offences are triable only in the magistrates’ court. Offences triable either way may be tried before either court, depending on the circumstances, in particular the seriousness of the offence and the preferences expressed by the prosecution and defendant; see further s 14 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, as re-enacted by ss 17–25 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980. Classification by reference to police powers
For the purposes of the powers given to police officers and citizens to effect the arrest of suspects, the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 distinguishes between those offences where a power to arrest is provided without an arrest warrant having been issued (arrestable offences – see s 24), and those offences that are ‘non-arrestable’, that is, where a warrant would
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Section 10(1)(b) of the Theft Act 1968: ‘weapon of offence’