How have courts interpreted the common law and statutory definitions of accomplice liability in a sexual assault case?

certain cases it is clear from the structure of a legislative scheme that the lawmaker must have intended that accomplice liability not extend to certain persons whose conduct might otherwise fall within the general common-law or statutory definition of complicity. A classic illustration is statutory rape, which makes it a crime to have sexual relations with a person who is under a statutorily defined age of consent. Applying the literal definitions of accomplice liability, a youthful participant who voluntarily consents to the act would be guilty of rape as well, because he or she intentionally aided or solicited the commission of the criminal act. But the legislature, in criminalizing the conduct of the adult participant and not that of the juvenile, obviously conceptualized the under-age party as the victim of the crime, and not a co-participant. Despite the common-law recognition of conspiracy and accomplice liability, and of the general principle that one could be guilty as a conspirator or accomplice even if the statute were defined in such a way that one was not capable of committing it as a principal, the common-law courts had no difficulty in recognizing an exception in those circumstances. See, e.g. , Regina v. Tyrell , [1894] 1 Q.B. 710.