Australian Capital Territory Current Acts

CRIMES ACT 1900 - SECT 35A

    (1)     A person commits an offence if—

        (a)     the person engages in conduct; and

        (b)     the conduct is violence or the threat of violence; and

        (c)     the violence or threat is directed towards someone else; and

        (d)     the violence or threat would be likely to cause a reasonable person to fear for his or her safety.

Maximum penalty: imprisonment for 2 years.

    (2)     A person commits an offence if—

        (a)     the person engages in conduct; and

        (b)     the conduct is violence or the threat of violence; and

        (c)     the violence or threat is directed towards someone else; and

        (d)     2 or more other people present are also engaging in conduct that is violence, or the threat of violence, directed towards someone else; and

        (e)     the conduct of the person and the other people taken together would be likely to cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety.

Maximum penalty: imprisonment for 5 years.

    (3)     A person commits an offence if—

        (a)     the person engages in conduct; and

        (b)     the conduct is violence or the threat of violence; and

        (c)     the violence or threat is directed towards someone else; and

        (d)     5 or more other people present are also engaging in conduct that is violence, or the threat of violence, directed towards someone else; and

        (e)     the conduct of the person and the other people taken together would be likely to cause a reasonable person to fear for their safety.

Maximum penalty: imprisonment for 10 years.

    (4)     For an offence against this section—

        (a)     the violence or the threat of violence—

              (i)     must involve more than words; and

              (ii)     need not be carried out in common purpose with any other person; and

        (b)     a person towards whom the violence or threat of violence is directed does not need to be involved in the violence or threat; and

        (c)     a reasonable person does not need to be, or be likely to be, present at the place where the conduct happened; and

        (d)     a person does not need to have actually feared for their safety.

    (5)     In this section:

"engage in conduct"—see the Criminal Code

, section 13.