The Court imposed an aggregate sentence of 10 years with a 6-year non-parole period for eight offences of sexual intercourse without consent and intentional choking against two sex worker victims, finding the offender had actual knowledge of non-consent based on the victims' direct verbal communications to stop, expressly distinguishing Brown v R where only recklessness was found despite similar verbal protests. The Court classified sex workers as vulnerable persons for the purposes of s 21A aggravation, analogous to taxi drivers and bank tellers, and applied R v Sabbah to assess the choking offence (committed concurrently with sexual intercourse causing near-unconsciousness) as falling in the mid-range of objective seriousness. The offender's guarded rehabilitation prospects due to lack of remorse and offending on bail were tempered by a low reoffending risk due to deteriorating health, with special circumstances found based on first-time custody, age, and physical and mental health conditions.
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