Where youth is relevant to sentencing, it must be taken into account in fixing the total term of imprisonment, not merely in determining the ratio between the custodial and non-custodial components of the sentence. The commencement of drug use during school years in circumstances of social anxiety and immaturity is relevant to moral culpability for subsequent drug importation offences. In drug importation cases where the predominant purpose was personal consumption rather than profit by resale, this is a factor mitigating objective seriousness even where the statutory defence under s 307.2(4) is not established. The whole of a sentence, including the period and conditions of a recognizance release order, must be pronounced in open court in the presence of the offender.
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