The previously accepted sentencing range of 5-10 years imprisonment for child manslaughter in Queensland, established by Walsh (1986) and applied through Chard, Riseley, Randall and Smith, is no longer useful for comparison purposes. Successive legislative changes since 1997 — including the serious violent offences amendments, the child victim aggravating factor in s 161B(5), and the domestic violence offence provisions in ss 9(10A) and 12A — require significantly more severe sentences. For a deliberate violent killing of an infant in a domestic setting, the Court indicated a starting point of 15 years before mitigation. In cases of extreme gravity, the mitigating effect of remorse and guilty pleas must yield to denunciation.
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