Where co-offenders have markedly different roles in a criminal enterprise — one being a principal and the other a menial functionary — a difference of only one year in head sentences (5 years vs 6 years) is insufficient differentiation and will give rise to a justifiable sense of grievance. Individual differences in personal mitigating circumstances cannot explain minimal differentiation where the difference in culpability arising from the respective roles is stark. The parity principle applies even where the co-offender's sentence is at the lower end of the available range, provided the resulting sentence is not itself inappropriately low.
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