The case provides a useful comparable sentence for indecent treatment of a child under 16 involving a breach of trust by a step-grandparent, with an effective sentence of three years and six months imprisonment for offending involving licking breasts and genitals, attempted oral sex, and masturbation to ejaculation on two occasions. It also illustrates the application of the Barbaro principle requiring courts to treat comparable sentencing decisions as yardsticks rather than accepting range submissions. Acquittals on some counts are not necessarily inconsistent with convictions on others where the jury may have adopted a cautious approach to older, less well-supported allegations.
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