The evaluation of the significance of age differences between juvenile co-offenders is a matter of fact akin to the exercise of a discretion, encompassing stage of development, maturity, and education as well as chronological age, and is subject to House v The King appellate restraint. Where a sentencing judge finds special circumstances, the proportion of non-parole period to overall term must be adequately adjusted in the effective overall sentence after accumulation, not merely in the individual sentences. Drug addiction commencing at a very young age remains a recognised exception to the general rule that addiction is not a mitigating factor. An unresolved question exists as to whether the s 21A(2)(n) planning aggravation applies only where the offender participated in the planning.
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