6 Accessories Before, During and After the Fact

The common law's temporal anatomy of participation — still the examination's cleanest classification:Accessories before the fact: one who, absent from the scene, aids, abets, counsels or procures the felony in advance — the planner, the financier, the arms-supplier. Modern law (Nepal's included, through abetment) punishes him equally with the principal — the before/during distinction has lost its original capital-consequence but survives as analytical clarity.Accessories during the fact (principals in the second degree): the person present at thecrime's execution — aiding, watching, keeping guard, ready to assist: "standing by, ready to help" — the getaway driver, the lookout, the crowd-keeper. Presence plus encouragement is the classic proof; liability as principal in the modern fusion. (The Nepali counterpart: joint commission/ abetment-by-aid — the guard at the robbery again.)Accessories after the fact: one who, knowing a felony has been committed, receives,relieves, comforts or assists the felon to hinder apprehension or punishment — the harbourer, the destroyer of evidence, the money-launderer's ancestor. The critical doctrinal point: the accessory after the fact is NOT a party to the original crime — he commits a separate, distinctoffence (obstruction of justice in modern nomenclature): his mens rea points not to the past offence but to the future escape. Requirements: knowledge that the principal committed the crime (knowledge, not mere suspicion); an act of assistance; the intent to…