Current sentencing practice for rape by digital penetration committed in circumstances broadly similar in objective gravity to the present case (premeditated, violent, vulnerable stranger victim) is inadequate and must be adjusted upward. Following DPP v [name withheld] in the High Court, sentencing judges and intermediate appellate courts should not consider themselves constrained by current sentencing practice to impose sentences they consider inadequate. A sentencing judge's expression of dissatisfaction with current sentencing practice does not, without more, constitute the taking into account of an irrelevant consideration.
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