Professor William Wilson delivered a lecture at the British Council in Accra, Ghana, challenging legal professionals to reconsider the approach of the law to preparatory or attempted crime, saying that acts falling short of the commission of an offence should only be criminalised if these acts were wrongful independently of the intention which accompanied them. Such acts should be criminalised as attempts if the acts were proximate to the offence, and as a substantive offence, for example assault with intent to commit rape, if they were not. Other less proximate acts should e dealt with by some form of civil order to effect a proper reconciliation of public protection and individual rights not to be punished in the absence of manifest wrongdoing.
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