Ugle v WA

(2012) 223 A Crim R 115; [2012] WASCA 104

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Appeal against sentence
4. › Totality principle
5. › Whether total effective sentence bore proper relationship to overall criminality
6. › Whether sentence was crushing
7. › Aggravated sexual offences against elderly victim
8. › Sentencing Act 1995 (WA), s 6(1), s 6(2), s 6(2)(b)
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Mitigating factors
4. › Youth of offender
5. › Whether youth must be shown to have contributed to offending to be mitigatory
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Mitigating factors
4. › Plea of guilty
5. › Extent of discount where plea not entered at earliest opportunity
6. › Whether plea indicative of remorse, acceptance of responsibility and willingness to facilitate justice
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Aggravating factors
4. › Vulnerability of victim
5. › Elderly victim
6. › Offending while on bail
7. › Criminal Code (WA), s 326, s 317(1), s 401(2)

Quick Take

The totality principle is not infringed by a total effective sentence of 11 years' imprisonment for aggravated burglary, aggravated assault occasioning bodily harm, and six counts of aggravated sexual penetration without consent against a 78-year-old victim, where the offender was aged 18 and the offending was at the upper end of the scale. Youth is mitigatory regardless of whether it contributed to the offending, but the degree of objective seriousness may significantly reduce its mitigating effect. A sentence resulting in release at age 30 is not 'crushing'.