WA v Cheeseman

[2011] WASCA 15

Western Australia Court of Appeal

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

See how it works

Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › State appeal against sentence
4. › Manifest inadequacy
5. › Assault occasioning bodily harm
6. › Whether fine manifestly inadequate where offence involved multiple blows, lifting victim by throat, and use of weapon
7. › Criminal Code (WA), s 317(1)
8. › Criminal Appeals Act 2004 (WA), s 41(1)(a)
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Suspended imprisonment
4. › Discretion to suspend
5. › Whether objective seriousness of offending outweighed considerations of rehabilitation and mercy
6. › Domestic violence context
7. › Sentencing Act 1995 (WA), s 76(1), s 76(2)
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Domestic violence
4. › Relevance of reconciliation with victim
5. › Whether reconciliation and return to relationship status quo are mitigatory factors
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Totality principle
4. › Multiple offences arising from single episode
5. › Whether concurrent sentences appropriate
6. › Sentencing Act 1995 (WA), s 87

Quick Take

Reconciliation between a domestic violence offender and the victim-partner is neither a unique nor a mitigatory circumstance for sentencing purposes. The otherwise appropriate penalty should not be reduced because there is a return to the pre-offending relationship status quo. Where offences of deprivation of liberty or threatening to kill involve the use of a weapon and are otherwise objectively serious, the usual sentencing disposition is a term of immediate imprisonment, and personal circumstances including guilty pleas, surrender to police, and mental health conditions must be sufficiently exceptional to displace that disposition.