## Facts

- Jane Tyrell was a girl between 13 and 16 years old.
- Thomas Froud (also reported in some sources as “Ford”), an adult male, had sexual intercourse with Tyrell.
- Froud was convicted of the statutory misdemeanor of having unlawful carnal knowledge of a girl between 13 and 16, contrary to section 5 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.
- After Froud’s conviction, Tyrell was indicted on two counts based on the same incident.
- The first count alleged Tyrell “unlawfully aided and abetted, counselled, and procured” Froud to commit the offense of unlawful carnal knowledge of her while she was between 13 and 16.
- The second count alleged Tyrell “falsely, wickedly, and unlawfully solicited and incited” Froud to commit the same offense.
- Evidence at Tyrell’s trial indicated that she had taken an active role in bringing about the intercourse (supporting the allegations of aid and encouragement).
- Tyrell was convicted on the indictment.
- A question of law was reserved for the Court for Crown Cases Reserved: whether, given the nature of section 5, Tyrell could be guilty as an accessory (or as a solicitor/inciter) to the offense committed against her.

## Issues

1. Whether a girl aged 13–16, in respect of whom the section 5 offense is committed, can be convicted as a secondary party for aiding, abetting, counselling, or procuring the man’s commission of that offense.
2. Whether the same girl can be convicted of soliciting or inciting the man to commit the section 5 offense against her.

## Decision

- The Court for Crown Cases Reserved allowed Tyrell’s appeal on the reserved point of law.
- The court held that Tyrell, as a member of the class section 5 was enacted to protect, could not in law be convicted as an aider, abettor, counsellor, procurer, solicitor, or inciter of the offense of unlawful carnal knowledge committed upon herself.
- Tyrell’s conviction was quashed.

## Legal Principles

- Where Parliament creates a statutory sexual offense to protect a defined class (here, girls aged 13–16), a member of that class is not to be treated as a principal or accessory to the commission of that offense absent clear statutory language.
- General doctrines of complicity (aiding, abetting, counselling, procuring) do not apply when their application would defeat the object of the statute by turning the protected person into an offender for the very conduct the statute targets.
- The same limitation applies to inchoate participation charged as “soliciting and inciting” the principal offense when the alleged solicitor/inciter is the person the statute is designed to shield.
- Statutes are construed with attention to their object and structure; where the scheme fixes liability on the adult participant and identifies the younger participant as the protected subject of the offense, courts will not infer liability for the protected subject through accessory doctrines.

## Conclusion

Regina v. Tyrell holds that section 5 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 was enacted to protect girls aged 13–16 from sexual exploitation, and therefore a girl within that age range cannot be convicted—either as an accessory by aiding and abetting or by soliciting and inciting—of unlawful carnal knowledge committed against herself; Tyrell’s conviction was set aside on that basis.


Regina v. Tyrell, 17 Cox Crim. Cas. 716 (1893)