Suspended imprisonment may be appropriate for intra-familial indecent dealing with a child where there is an unusual combination of mitigating factors including offending at the very low end of seriousness, early guilty pleas, no prior convictions, genuine remorse demonstrated by voluntary admission, substantial rehabilitation through counselling, low reoffending risk, and lengthy delay between offending and sentencing. However, this remains a minority position in the sense that [name withheld] would have maintained immediate imprisonment, and the general rule that immediate imprisonment is ordinarily appropriate for intra-familial sexual abuse remains undisturbed.
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