The Court sentenced an 84-year-old offender to 10 years and 6 months imprisonment (non-parole period of 6 years) for persistent sexual abuse of a child and two counts of act of indecency against three victims, applying a 25% discount for early guilty pleas. The Court held that the offender's advanced age, frailty and poor health, while relevant, were constrained in their mitigating effect by the necessity for sentences to reflect community abhorrence of child sex offences and the purposes of denunciation, accountability and general deterrence. No finding of remorse was made given the offender's dismissive characterisation of the offending, and the Court declined to allow the offender's present circumstances to dominate the sentencing exercise where the delay in charging resulted from the victims' delayed complaints, which is characteristic of child sexual abuse cases.
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