McFARLANE v WA

[2024] WASCA 33

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Appeal against sentence
3. › Manifestly excessive
4. › Whether sentence manifestly excessive as to type
5. › Whether immediate imprisonment should have been suspended
6. › Criminal Code (WA), s 325
7. › Sentencing Act 1995 (WA), ss 39(2), 39(3), 76(1), 76(2), 81(1)
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Sexual offences
4. › Sexual penetration without consent
5. › Mitigating factors
6. › Honest but unreasonable mistaken belief as to consent
7. › Whether self-induced intoxication reduces moral culpability
8. › Whether delay attributable to offender's false denials is mitigatory
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Suspended imprisonment
4. › Whether exceptional circumstances existed to justify departure from ordinary disposition of immediate imprisonment
5. › Sentencing Act 1995 (WA), ss 6(4), 39(2), 39(3)

Quick Take

An honest but unreasonable mistaken belief as to consent arising from voluntary intoxication carries significantly diminished mitigatory weight in sexual offence sentencing, and delay caused by the offender's own false denials to police limits the mitigatory value of rehabilitation during that period.