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This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.


CRIMINAL CODE AMENDMENT (HOME INVASION) BILL 2000

                               Western Australia


                          LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY



         Criminal Code Amendment (Home Invasion)
                        Bill 2000


                                   A Bill for


    An Act to amend The Criminal Code.



    The Parliament of Western Australia enacts as follows:


    1.      Short title
            This Act may be cited as the Criminal Code Amendment (Home
5           Invasion) Act 2000.




                                                                page 1
                                    5--1
     Criminal Code Amendment (Home Invasion) Bill 2000



     s. 2




     2.       Commencement
              This Act comes into operation on the day on which it receives
              the Royal Assent.

     3.       Criminal Code amended
5             The amendment in this Act is to The Criminal Code*.
              [* Reprinted as at 2 October 1999 as the Schedule to the
                 Criminal Code Act 1913 appearing in Appendix B to the
                 Criminal Code Compilation Act 1913.
                 For subsequent amendments see 1999 Index to Legislation of
10               Western Australia, Table 1, p. 60, and Act No. 17 of 2000 .]

     4.       Section 244 replaced
              Section 244 is repealed and the following section is inserted
              instead --
     "
15          244.    Defence against home invasion
              (1)   It is lawful for a person ("the occupant") who is in
                    peaceable possession of a dwelling to use any force or
                    do anything else that the occupant believes, on
                    reasonable grounds, to be necessary --
20                     (a) to prevent a home invader from wrongfully
                             entering the dwelling or an associated place;
                      (b) to cause a home invader who is wrongfully in
                             the dwelling or on or in an associated place to
                             leave the dwelling or place;
25                     (c) to make effectual defence against violence used
                             or threatened in relation to a person by a home
                             invader who is --
                               (i) attempting to wrongfully enter the
                                     dwelling or an associated place; or


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                  Criminal Code Amendment (Home Invasion) Bill 2000



                                                                       s. 4



                    (ii)   wrongfully in the dwelling or on or in
                           an associated place;
                   or
            (d)    to prevent a home invader from committing, or
5                  make a home invader stop committing, an
                   offence in the dwelling or on or in an associated
                   place.
     (2)   A person is a "home invader" for the purposes of
           subsection (1) if the occupant believes, on reasonable
10         grounds, that the person --
             (a) intends to commit an offence; or
             (b) is committing or has committed an offence,
           in the dwelling or on or in an associated place.
     (3)   The authorisation conferred by subsection (1)(a), (b) or
15         (d) extends to a person assisting the occupant or acting
           by the occupant's authority.
     (4)   Section 250 applies to the authorisation conferred by
           subsection (1)(c).
     (5)   This section has effect even if the conduct it authorises
20         would not otherwise be authorised under this Chapter.
     (6)   In this section --
           "associated place" means --
                (a) any place that is used exclusively in
                      connection with, or for purposes ancillary to,
25                    the occupation of the dwelling; and
                (b) if the dwelling is one of 2 or more dwellings
                      in one building or group of buildings, a place
                      that occupants of the dwellings use in
                      common with one another;
30         "offence" means an offence in addition to any
                wrongful entry;

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Criminal Code Amendment (Home Invasion) Bill 2000



s. 4



              "place" means any land, building or structure, or a part
                  of any land, building or structure.
                                                                         ".




 


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