The parity principle in sentencing extends to participants in a common criminal enterprise who committed different crimes, not only to co-offenders who committed the same crime. However, the principle is subject to four significant limitations: it cannot overcome prosecutorial charging decisions; practical difficulties increase with the degree of difference between crimes charged; it cannot overcome unjustifiably low co-offender sentences; and particular difficulties arise where the comparator was charged with a less serious offence. R v Kerr should no longer be followed insofar as it suggests courts may ameliorate the effects of prosecutorial discretion in charging. When comparing sentences with a co-offender sentenced on a Crown appeal, the leniency inherent in the Crown appeal sentencing must be factored into the parity comparison.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 167 later cases that cite this judgment.
66 of the 167 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.