The law as to who can be prosecuted for *acts of another*, or for the *acts of a group*, is described by: accessory, aid and abet, counsel and procure, acting in concert, common purpose, extended common purpose and joint criminal enterprise.
- **Aid:** The ordinary meaning of aid is to give help support or assistance to.
- **Abet:** A common dictionary meaning of abetting is encouraging or countenancing, and this is to be remembered when the words aiding or abetting alone are used. To incite, instigate or encourage.
- **Counsel:** To advise, urge the doing or adoption of something; or to recommend a plan.
- **Procure:** To procure means to produce by endeavour a thing by setting out to see that it happens and taking the appropriate steps to produce that happening.
- *Presence* does not necessarily mean immediate physical presence (Likiardopoulos [2010] VSCA 344)
- But presence alone is insufficient to prove complicity.
- R v Clarkson [1971] 1 WLR 1402; It is not enough then that the presence of the accused person has in fact, given encouragement. It must be proved that he intended to give encouragement; that he wilfully encouraged.
- R v Johnson [2007] QCA 76: That passage emphasise three things:
- That proof of mere presence at the scene of the offence will not suffice; and
- That the prosecution must establish that the intention behind the presence is to encourage; and
- That the prosecution must establish that the effect of the presence is to encourage.