A sentencing judge may decline to fix a non-parole period under s 11(1) of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) for murder following a guilty plea, even where the offender has no prior conviction for murder, where the exceptional gravity of the offending outweighs the utilitarian value of the plea and all other mitigating factors. Reference to interstate sentencing practices for comparable offences is not an irrelevant consideration in the exercise of the sentencing discretion.
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