The case confirms that where an accused gives signed written instructions to plead guilty, signs agreed facts, and receives careful judicial explanation of the consequences, the pleas will not be set aside on appeal absent evidence of intimidation, improper inducement, or fraud. A 2008 neurologist's report obtained after sentencing, indicating a head injury sustained seven years before the offending with a prognosis of return to normal function, was insufficient to establish a nexus between the medical condition and the commission of domestic violence offences. An aggregate sentence of six years imprisonment for sustained domestic violence offending over 14 months, including a serious public justice offence, was within the range open to the sentencing judge.
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