An accused's cooperation with police (including making admissions and identifying co-offenders) must be recognised as a mitigating factor in sentencing because of what it communicates about the accused's attitude, even though a co-offender's exercise of the right to silence cannot be held against that co-offender. A sentencing judge who fails to give weight to cooperation with police and prospects of rehabilitation, being unduly influenced by deterrence, commits an error warranting appellate intervention. An unblemished record between the date of offences and the date of sentence is firm evidence of genuine remorse and real prospects of rehabilitation.
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