A sentencing judge who declines to treat a late guilty plea as a mitigating factor indicative of remorse does not thereby penalise the offender for the late plea, provided the utilitarian discount under s 53A is still applied. The Court was divided on whether complete rejection of an admitted and unchallenged psychiatric report without notice constitutes procedural unfairness — Cavanagh J would have found unfairness established while the majority found it was not, given the Crown's submissions had put the weight of the report in issue.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 5 later cases that cite this judgment.
3 of the 5 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.