Under the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (Vic), once leave to appeal against sentence has been granted, the Court of Appeal must allow the appeal and resentence if an individual sentence is found to be erroneous, even if the total effective sentence will be unaffected — the post-[name withheld] amendment to s 280 (permitting refusal of leave where no prospect of reducing the total effective sentence) was not replicated in ss 281-282. Whether the [name withheld] approach (dismissing an appeal despite individual sentence error) is available in Victoria remains an open question, but the Court expressed serious doubt. A sentence of 2 years' imprisonment for a single incident of sexual assault involving grabbing the complainant's hand and attempting to place it on the offender's penis, on a plea of guilty by a first offender, was manifestly excessive; 6 months was the appropriate sentence.
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