When sentencing for old offences, the primary guide is the maximum penalty in force at the time of offending and the range of criminality encompassed by the offence, rather than attempts to reconstruct actual sentencing patterns from earlier decades. The fact that offending occurred under a different sentencing regime may constitute special circumstances warranting departure from the statutory non-parole period ratio under s 44(2) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999. Judicial recollection of past sentencing patterns should be treated with very great care due to its unreliability and the inequity of its application.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 28 later cases that cite this judgment.
12 of the 28 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.