Where a sentencing judge departs from the statutory default under s 72 of the Crimes (Sentencing) Act 2005 (ACT) that sentences for offences committed in lawful custody be consecutive, reasons must be given for the departure, especially where the degree of departure is significant. The policy of s 72 is that further offending in custody must be seen to carry the consequence of a full consecutive sentence as an almost inevitable outcome. Sentences of 18 months and 6 months for intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm in custody (with potentially life-threatening injuries, premeditation, and offending in company) were manifestly inadequate where they added only 6 months to the head sentence and 3 months to the non-parole period.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 35 later cases that cite this judgment.
12 of the 35 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.