Persons who take the law into their own hands and inflict punishment on those they unreasonably believe have committed offences must expect condign punishment, and general deterrence is an important sentencing consideration for such conduct. A sentencing judge errs by characterising vigilante-type manslaughter as being in the 'least culpable category' on the basis that the offence was the product of a 'cruel confluence of events'. Sentences of three years (almost entirely suspended) for manslaughter involving a deliberate, vicious beating of an innocent person by two offenders acting in concert were manifestly inadequate; six years with a four-year non-parole period was substituted.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 48 later cases that cite this judgment.
8 of the 48 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.