Delay between the commission of historical child sex offences and sentencing is not, in and of itself, a mitigating factor; it is mitigatory only where it has caused or facilitated other mitigating circumstances such as rehabilitation or advanced age. When applying the totality principle to a prior completed sentence that was subject to the pre-2003 remission regime, the sentencing court should take into account the actual time served (including the one-third remission) rather than the head sentence alone. The extremely serious nature of child sex offending may significantly reduce the extent to which humanitarian considerations relating to advanced age can be accommodated in sentencing.
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