Evidence of a complainant who is ambivalent about whether a threat to kill was made, and who accepts in cross-examination that no such threat was made, lacks the probative force to sustain a conviction for threat to kill. An indictment containing 52 counts in a multi-complainant sexual offence case is not necessarily overloaded where the 'in the presence of' charges are necessary to reflect the full criminality of the offending, including the offender's modus operandi of group grooming. Neither advanced age nor the near certainty that an offender will die in prison justifies an inappropriately lenient sentence where the offender is a serious sexual offender and community protection is the paramount sentencing purpose.
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