Odger's English Common Law

334 ROBBERY AND PIRACY.
(vi.) Lastly, the jury must be satisfied that in obtaining the
goods the prisoner had a criminal intent—in short, that he
meant to steal them. Thus, if the prisoner honestly believes
the goods in question to be his own and obtains possession of
them by menaces, he commits the tort of trespass but not the
crime of robbery. 1
On an indictment for robbery the prisoner can also be con-
victed either of an attempt to rob, which is a common law
misdemeanour, or of an assault with intent to rob, which is a
statutory felony. Every assault with intent to rob is an
attempt to rob, but not every attempt to rob is an assault with
intent to rob ; for an attempt to rob may be made by other
means than an assault. An assault with intent to rob is
punishable with penal servitude for five years; or, if the
robber be armed or accompanied by another person, he may be
sentenced to penal servitude for life and also to be once
privately whipped. 2 To satisfy the statute there must be an
assault, but there need not be a battery. The intent to
rob is, as a rule, evidenced by a demand for money or other
valuable property from the prosecutor ; but this is not essen-
tial, as other circumstances of the case may satisfy the jury
that the prisoner did intend to rob. On an indictment for an
assault with intent to rob, it has been held that the prisoner
cannot be convicted of a common assault, because one is a
felony and the other a misdemeanour. 3
By section 30 of the Larceny Act, 1916, it is a felony
punishable with five years' penal servitude to demand any-
thing capable of being stolen with menaces or by force with
intent to steal the same. 4 By the Post Office Act, 1908, 5 it is
a felony punishable with penal servitude for life for any one
to stop a mail with intent to rob or search it. The same
maximum punishment attaches to the felony of inducing
1 B. v. Hall (1828), 3 0. & P. 409.
2
S. 23 (1) ta) and (3).
3 R. v. Woodhall (1872), 12 Cox, 240. It may be doubted whether this ease still
holds good since the Indictments Act, 1915.
4 6 & 7 Geo. V. o. 50. See also s. 29. As to the meaning of " menaces " in these
sections, see R. v. Boyle and Merchant, [1914] 3 K. B. 3S9.
6 8 Edw. VII. c. 48, s. 50 (d).