Where a sentencing judge expressly relies on sentencing statistics (including Local Court statistics) as supporting the sentence imposed, the sentence must be reconcilable with those statistics, or the judge must explain why conduct found to be of a relatively low degree of criminality is being punished as if it were of a relatively high degree. A trusted family friend who has free access to a family home does not necessarily occupy a 'position of trust or authority' for the purposes of s 21A(2)(k) unless the offences occurred on occasions when the offender had been given or undertaken responsibility for the child. The scope of s 23(1) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act in relation to assistance by non-informer witnesses remains unresolved.
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