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VEXATIOUS INDICTMENTS ACT 1859
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C A P. XVII.
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An Act to prevent Vexatious Indictments for certain Misdemeanors. [8th August 1859.]
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Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:
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No Indictment for Offences herein-named to be preferred without previous Authorization.
14 & 15 Vict. c. 100.
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I. After the First Day of September One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, no Bill of Indictment for any of the Offences following, viz.
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Perjury,
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Subornation of Perjury,
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Conspiracy,
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Obtaining Money or other Property by false Pretences,
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Keeping a Gambling House,
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Keeping a disorderly House, and
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Any indecent Assault,
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shall be presented to or found by any Grand Jury, unless the Prosecutor or other Person presenting such Indictment has been bound by Recognizance to prosecute or give Evidence against the Person accused of such Offence, or unless the Person accused has been committed to or detained in Custody, or has been bound by Recognizance to appear to answer to an Indictment to be preferred against him for such Offence, or unless such Indictment for such Offence, if charged to have been committed in England, be preferred by the Direction or with the Consent in Writing of a Judge of One of the Superior Courts of Law at Westminster, or of Her Majesty’s Attorney General or Solicitor General for England, or unless such Indictment for such Offence, if charged to have been committed in Ireland, be preferred by the Direction or with the Consent in Writing of a Judge of One of the Superior Courts of Law in Dublin, or of Her Majesty’s Attorney General or Solicitor General for Ireland, or (in the Case of an Indictment for Perjury) by the Direction of any Court, Judge, or public Functionary authorized by an Act of the Session holden in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Years of Her Majesty, Chapter One hundred, to direct a Prosecution for Perjury.
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In certain Cases where Prosecutor desires to prefer an Indictment Justice to take his Recognizance to prosecute.
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II. That where any Charge or Complaint shall be made before any One or more of Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace that any Person has committed any of the Offences aforesaid within the Jurisdiction of such Justice, and such Justice shall refuse to commit or to bail the Person charged with such Offence to be tried for the same, then in case the Prosecutor shall desire to prefer an Indictment respecting the said Offence, it shall be lawful for the said Justice and he is hereby required to take the Recognizance of such Prosecutor to prosecute the said Charge or Complaint, and to transmit such Recognizance, Information, and Depositions, if any, to the Court in which such Indictment ought to be preferred, in the same Manner as such Justice would have done in case he had committed the Person charged to be tried for such Offence.
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Act not to extend to Scotland.
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III. This Act shall not extend to Scotland.
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