A sentencing judge may refer to uncharged acts as background facts to assist in understanding the circumstances of the criminality, provided the judge does not take those acts into account to increase the penalty or deny leniency. An agreed statement of facts tendered at sentencing may properly include background material. A head sentence of six years' imprisonment for 20 counts of domestic violence offending over eight years, including suffocation, assault occasioning bodily harm, and attempting to pervert the course of justice, with a late guilty plea and no remorse, was within the permissible range.
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