Offences against the Person Act 1861 (c. 100)

Concealing the Birth of a Child E+W+N.I.

60 Concealing the birth of a child. E+W+N.I.

If any woman shall be delivered of a child, every person who shall, by any secret disposition of the dead body of the said child, whether such child died before, at, or after its birth, endeavour to conceal the birth thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two years, . . . F1

Textual Amendments

F1 Words omitted by virtue of Criminal Justice Act 1948 (c. 58), s. 1(2); and proviso repealed by Criminal Law Act 1967 (c. 58), Sch. 2 para. 13(1)(a), Sch. 13 Pt. III

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C1 Ss. 16, 20, 26, 27, 34, 36, 38, 47, 57, 60 amended as to mode of trial by Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 (c. 43, SIF 82), Sch. 1 para. 5

61—63. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F2 E+W+N.I.

Textual Amendments

F2 Ss. 52-55, 61-63 repealed (E.W.) by Sexual Offences Act 1956 (c. 69), Sch. 4; and ss. 61, 62 repealed in so far as not already repealed (1.5.2004) by Sexual Offences Act 2003 (c. 42), ss. 139, 140, Sch. 6 para. 4, Sch. 7; S.I. 2004/874, art. 2