Sentences for maintaining a sexual relationship with a child under 16 that are clustered around 20% of the 25-year maximum penalty may not adequately reflect the statutory maximum. A sentencing judge who concludes that current sentencing practices are inconsistent with the statutory maximum is not constrained by those practices, following R v AB (No 2). However, an offender who pleaded guilty on the reasonable assumption of being sentenced according to current practices cannot be resentenced on a basis they could not reasonably have anticipated. The degree of moral culpability of an offender acting in loco parentis is no less than that of a natural father or stepfather.
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