Western Australian Current Acts Western Australian Current Acts (1) In this section
—
investigate , an offence, includes to exercise any
power under the common law, a written law or a law of the Commonwealth for the
purposes of obtaining evidence as to the commission of the offence;
law enforcement officer means —
(a) a
police officer; or
(b) a
person, other than a police officer, appointed under a written law to an
office on which the common law, a written law or a law of the Commonwealth
confers powers to investigate offences;
relevant offence means a serious offence, or an
AOJ offence, a charge of which may be subject to —
(a) a
defence under The Criminal Code section 17 on the ground that the accused has
been acquitted as described in that section, other than on account of
unsoundness of mind; or
(b) a
requirement at law to permanently stay it because it would be an abuse of
process.
(2) A law enforcement
officer, whether with or without an acquitted accused’s consent, must
not investigate or authorise another person to investigate whether the
acquitted accused may have committed a relevant offence unless —
(a)
under subsection (4), an authorised officer, in writing, has authorised the
investigation; or
(b) the
law enforcement officer believes on reasonable grounds —
(i)
the investigation needs to be done urgently in order to
prevent it from being substantially and irrevocably prejudiced; and
(ii)
it is not reasonably practicable in the circumstances to
obtain an authorised officer’s authorisation before doing the
investigation.
(3) If a law
enforcement officer acts under subsection (2)(b) —
(a) the
officer, as soon as it is practicable to do so, must inform an authorised
officer of —
(i)
the grounds for acting under that provision; and
(ii)
the action taken;
and
(b) the
investigation of the relevant offence must not continue unless, under
subsection (4), an authorised officer, in writing, has authorised the
investigation.
(4) An authorised
officer must not authorise the investigation of a relevant offence unless
—
(a) the
officer is satisfied a charge of the offence would not be subject to —
(i)
a defence under The Criminal Code section 17 on the
ground that the accused has been acquitted as described in that section, other
than on account of unsoundness of mind; or
(ii)
a requirement at law to permanently stay it because it
would be an abuse of process;
or
(b) the
officer is satisfied —
(i)
there is, or the investigation is likely to obtain,
evidence to justify making an application under this Part for leave to charge
the acquitted accused with the relevant offence; and
(ii)
it is in the public interest to investigate the relevant
offence.
[Section 46C inserted: No. 9 of 2012 s. 4.]