Hicks (a pseudonym) v Director of Public Prosecutions

The applicant, Hicks (a pseudonym), sought leave to appeal an interlocutory decision of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The dispute concerned whether the offence of incitement to procure a murder, where the murder itself was not carried out, constituted an offence known to law. The application was heard by Baker J.

The central legal issue before the court was to determine whether an indictment alleging incitement to procure a murder, when the murder was not completed, disclosed a valid offence known to Australian law. This required an examination of the elements of the offence of incitement and its relationship to the substantive offence that was the subject of the incitement.

Baker J considered the nature of incitement as an inchoate offence, focusing on the intent to encourage or procure the commission of a crime. The judge noted that the success or failure of the incited act is not determinative of the incitement offence itself. The application for leave to appeal was stood over to be heard concurrently with the substantive appeal.