A sentencing judge is not constrained to the maximum penalty for the most serious individual offence when sentencing for multiple offences; the totality of offending may be reflected through cumulative sentences on other counts. A breach of s 13(3) of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) — the obligation to state in open court that a guilty plea was taken into account — is not saved by s 13(5), unlike a breach of s 13(4). Domestic violence strangulation offences accompanied by home invasion and abduction may warrant sentences exceeding the seven-year maximum for strangulation alone when the totality principle is properly applied.
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