There is no canon of law mandating that digital penetration be considered less serious than other non-consensual acts of sexual intercourse; the form of forced intercourse is an important but not sole consideration in assessing objective seriousness. Sentencing judges must give appropriate weight to the violence, physical hurt, circumstances of humiliation, and duration of the offence, not merely the form of penetration. Whether the broader proposition that digital penetration should never be regarded as generally less serious than penile penetration is adopted remains an open question.
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