The Court of Appeal held that concurrent sentences of nine months' imprisonment suspended after two months were manifestly inadequate for two counts of indecent treatment of a child under 12, substituting 12 months' imprisonment suspended after six months. The Court emphasised that community denunciation signalled by the court as an organ of the State must predominate over any shaming effect of media publicity, and that an offender's military service, salaried public service, and manageable health issues carry limited mitigating weight against the need for denunciation and general deterrence. The Court also held that sentencing judges must be astute to the legislative signal conveyed by the applicable 20-year maximum penalty.
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