BGR v WA

[2014] WASCA 82

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Appeal against sentence
4. › Manifest excess
5. › Whether wrong type of sentence imposed
6. › Whether immediate imprisonment manifestly excessive where unusual combination of mitigating factors
7. › Whether terms of imprisonment should have been suspended
8. › Sentencing Act 1995 (WA), ss 39(2), 39(3)
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Mitigating factors
4. › Voluntary disclosure
5. › Failure to give discount for disclosure of circumstances and offences not otherwise known to police
6. › Whether express error enlivened appellate jurisdiction
7. › Sentencing Act 1995 (WA), s 8(4)
8. › Criminal Appeals Act 2004 (WA), s 31(4)(a)
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Mitigating factors
4. › Delay
5. › Relevance and weight of delay between detection of offences and commencement of criminal proceedings
6. › Whether delay attributable to protection of child victim constitutes undue or unreasonable delay
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Sexual offences against children
4. › Intra-familial sexual abuse
5. › Primary sentencing considerations
6. › Weight of personal mitigating factors
7. › Criminal Code (WA), s 329(4)

Quick Take

A sentencing judge's failure to give any discount for an offender's voluntary disclosure of details of sexual offending which would not otherwise have been ascertained by investigating authorities constitutes an express error enlivening appellate jurisdiction under s 31(4)(a) of the Criminal Appeals Act 2004 (WA). An unusual combination of mitigating factors — including early guilty pleas, cessation of offending before disclosure, completion of sex offender treatment, rehabilitation, low reoffending risk, advanced age, and voluntary disclosure — may warrant suspension of imprisonment even for serious intra-familial child sexual abuse, though this was a 2-1 decision.