Disclaimer: This work was produced by one of our expert legal writers, as a learning aid to help law students with their studies.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of LawTeacher.net. Any information contained in this case summary does not constitute legal advice and should be treated as educational content only.

R v Jheeta - 2007

305 words (1 pages) Case Summary

28th Jun 2019 Case Summary Reference this In-house law team

Jurisdiction / Tag(s): UK Law

R v Jheeta [2007] 2 Cr App R 477

Definition of ‘relevant act’ in s.76 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003

Facts

The defendant and the victim were in a consensual sexual relationship. The defendant began sending anonymous threatening messages to the victim, and promised to protect her when she confided in him. She later tried to end her relationship with the defendant, to which he responded by sending messages pretending to be a police officer telling her she should sleep with him or be criminally liable.

Issues

The offence of rape under s.1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 requires an absence of consent on the part of the victim, and the absence of a reasonable belief in consent on the part of the defendant. s.76 imposes a conclusive presumption of the absence of consent and the absence of a reasonable belief in consent in circumstances where the defendant intentionally deceived the complainant as to the nature or purpose of the relevant act. The issue in this case was the identity of the ‘relevant act’ to which the deception had to relate.

Decision/Outcome

The Court of Appeal held that the ‘relevant act’ to which s.76 referred to was the act of vaginal, anal or oral penetration. As such, for s.76 to apply, the victim had to be deceived as to the nature and purpose of the sex itself, and not merely deceived as to extraneous circumstances. For this reason, it was held that the application of s.76 would be rare, and it did not apply in this case.

However, as the defendant had admitted that the victim was not truly consenting to many of their sexual encounters, the rape convictions were held to be safe regardless of whether the s.76 presumption applied. The convictions were therefore upheld.

Cite This Work

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below:

Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.

Related Services

View all

Related Content

Jurisdictions / Tags

Content relating to: "UK Law"

UK law covers the laws and legislation of England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Essays, case summaries, problem questions and dissertations here are relevant to law students from the United Kingdom and Great Britain, as well as students wishing to learn more about the UK legal system from overseas.

Related Articles