Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

accessory at the fact

See principal in the second degree under PRINCIPAL (2)."A principal in the second degree is one by whom the actual perpetrator of the felony is aided and abetted at the very time when it is committed; for instance, a carowner sitting beside the chauffeur who kills someone by over-fast driving, or a passenger on a clandestine joyriding expedition which results in manslaughter; or a bigamist's second 'wife', if she knows he is committing bigamy. (In early law he was not ranked as a principal at all, but only as a third kind of accessory - the accessory at the fact.)" J.W. Cecil Turner, Kenny's Outlines of Criminal Law 86 (16th ed. 1952).