The parity principle in sentencing is not to be avoided by the prosecuting authority simply charging co-operative offenders with less serious offences; the whole of the circumstances must be examined. When a person implicated in the offence has already been convicted and sentenced, the sentencing judge must take care to ensure the sentence is not so severe as to generate a justified sense of grievance in the offender and a sense of disquiet in the disinterested observer. A sentencing judge cannot simply accept a Crown submission that no issue of parity arises without independent consideration of the co-offender's disposition.
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