The very serious nature of sustained child sexual offending involving grooming and targeting of vulnerable children, combined with prior convictions for similar offending, may significantly reduce the extent to which humanitarian considerations based on advanced age and medical conditions can be accommodated in sentencing, even where the offender may die in prison or have no prospect of useful life after release. A total effective sentence of 12 years' imprisonment for 31 counts of child sex offending over 14 years against five victims was upheld for a 68-year-old offender with significant medical conditions.
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