accessory after the fact

• accessary after the fact

accessory after the fact (plural accessories after the fact)

1. (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 […]

• accessory before the fact