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DEFENCE FORCE DISCIPLINE ACT 1982 - SECT 54A Custodial offences

DEFENCE FORCE DISCIPLINE ACT 1982 - SECT 54A

Custodial offences

  (1)   A detainee who:

  (a)   makes any unnecessary noise;

  (b)   commits a nuisance;

  (c)   is idle, careless or negligent at work;

  (d)   without lawful authority, converses or otherwise communicates with another person (whether or not a detainee);

  (e)   without lawful authority, gives any thing to, or receives any thing from, another person (whether or not a detainee);

  (f)   without lawful authority, has in his or her possession any thing; or

  (g)   without lawful authority, enters or leaves his or her cell;

commits an offence.

  (2)   A detainee who, while on leave of absence from a detention centre, refuses or fails to comply with a condition of the grant of the leave of absence commits an offence.

  (2A)   An offence under this section is an offence of strict liability.

Note:   For strict liability , see section   6.1 of the Criminal Code .

  (3)   It is a defence if a person charged with a custodial offence proves that he or she had a reasonable excuse for engaging in the behaviour to which the charge relates.

Note:   The defendant bears a legal burden in relation to the matter in subsection   (3). See section   13.4 of the Criminal Code .

  (4)   The maximum punishment for a custodial offence is segregated confinement for 10 days.

  (5)   Subsection   (4) has effect notwithstanding anything contained in section   64.

  (6)   If a person (other than a detainee) commits an offence against subsection   (1) or (2) of this section by virtue of section   11.2 or 11.2A of the Criminal Code , that section has effect as if the maximum punishment for an offence against subsection   (1) or (2) of this section were imprisonment for 10 days.