accessory after the fact

English[edit]

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accessory after the fact (plural accessories after the fact)

(law) An individual who assists someone who has committed a crime so as to protect them from legal prosecution.
- 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter II, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book III:
  […] some of that atrocious wickedness in Jones, […] might perhaps be derived from the encouragement he had received from this fellow, who […] had been what the law calls an accessary^[sic] after the fact […]

person who assists someone who has committed a crime