When sentencing on multiple counts, the sentencing judge must fix individually appropriate sentences for each count and then apply the totality principle to determine concurrency or accumulation; increasing sentences for later counts by reason of earlier offences is an error under Pearce v The Queen. For strict liability sexual offences under s 66C(1), the presence or absence of consent may be relevant to objective criminality but the sentencing judge must make clear whether it is being treated as an aggravating factor. The circumstance that offences could have been dealt with summarily does not limit the sentencing judge to the Local Court maximum.
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