The Court held that a sentencing judge is not precluded by existing authority from treating an offender's grief and despair at the loss of a spouse in a failed suicide pact as extra-curial punishment, but the claim failed on the facts because the primary judge rejected the factual premise that the applicant was genuinely remorseful or suffering self-punishment. The Court confirmed that a complaint about the weight given to victim impact statements is not a proper ground of appeal, and that an 18-month sentence served by way of an Intensive Correction Order for aiding or abetting suicide was not manifestly excessive in the circumstances. The Court expressly left open the question of whether the standard of appellate review applicable to a s 5(1) Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act determination (the imprisonment threshold) is governed by House v The King principles or some other standard.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 2 later cases that cite this judgment.
1 of the 2 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.