Delay in the reporting of historical child sex offences is not a mitigating factor; it is a consequence of the nature of the offending and the offender's own conduct. Perpetrators of child sexual offences are not entitled to a discount because their victims do not come forward at the same time. There is a distinction between a lack of further convictions (which may be taken into account in mitigation) and a positive finding that offending conduct ceased (which must be proved on the balance of probabilities by the offender). A sentencing judge applying the totality principle across sequential sentences is not required to reduce the non-parole period of the sentence actually imposed to preserve the statutory ratio in the overall composite sentence.
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