Where the Crown charges common law kidnapping (maximum 25 years) for conduct that could have been charged as child stealing under s 63 of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic) (maximum 5 years), the sentencing court is obliged to take the less punitive regime into account as a mitigating factor, particularly where the kidnapping is for 'mothering purposes' and the aggravating features are addressed by separate counts. The parity principle requires that differences in sentences between co-offenders reflect genuine differences in culpability; a three-year difference in non-parole periods was held to be clearly too great where the more heavily sentenced offender was psychologically dependent on and vulnerable to the influence of the co-offender.
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