R v Roy

(2001) 1 VR 640; [2001] VSCA 61

Victorian Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Armed robbery
4. › Use of blood-filled syringe as weapon
5. › Whether automatic or mechanical addition to sentence appropriate
6. › Instinctive synthesis approach
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Manifest excess
4. › Mitigating factors
5. › Plea of guilty
6. › Whether sentencing judge required to indicate extent of discount for plea
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Armed robbery
4. › Soft targets
5. › General deterrence
6. › Relevance of nature of weapon to sentence

Quick Take

There is no automatic or mechanical addition to a sentence for armed robbery on account of the use of a blood-filled syringe as a weapon. Such cases must be sentenced according to the instinctive synthesis, with the nature of the weapon treated as a relevant factor in the overall sentencing exercise rather than attracting a fixed increment. The Court also confirmed that a sentencing judge is not required to indicate in extenso the extent to which a plea of guilty has been taken into account; the question is whether the judge took the plea into account in an appropriate fashion.