12/06/1959

OF CRIMINAL APPEAL (INFERIOR)

HARDING WILLIAM

THE POLICE vs WILLIAM ST. JOHN

N/A

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N/A

ART. 223 AND 352 (Z) OF THE CRIMINAL LAWS - OFFENCE AGAINST DECENCY AND MORALS - PUBLIC PLACE

It does not seem that any particular specific intent is required as an ingredient of the crime of offence against public decency and morals. It is certainly necessary for the Court to look into the background of the whole circumstances of each particular case, in as much as, if those circumstancesdisclose that the act committed by defendant happened to be obscene merely through a careless disregard of the commonly accepted rules of decency, then there would not be a crime of offence against decency or morals committed in public, but only a contravention consisting in the making of obscene acts or gestures in public.