An offender convicted of attempted sexual penetration without consent cannot be sentenced as if the completed offence had been committed, and sentences for completed offences should not be used as comparators because that would ignore the different maximum penalties. Where the maximum penalty for the attempt is 7 years, a starting point of approximately 5 years 8 months (before a 25% guilty plea discount) was held to be manifestly excessive for an objectively serious example of the offence.
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