The Court of Appeal refused leave to appeal against a total effective sentence of 7 years and 3 months' imprisonment (NPP 3 years 9 months) for serious intimate partner violence involving reckless injury, assault, threats to destroy property, and a threat to kill. The Court held that the individual sentences (50–60% of maximum penalties) and cumulation orders were within the range reasonably open to the sentencing judge, given the planned and prolonged nature of the offending, the family violence context demanding prominence of denunciation and deterrence, and the paucity of mitigating factors. The Court confirmed that sentencing statistics alone do not establish a sentencing practice and cannot cap the sentencing range, which is set by the maximum penalty for the worst class of offence.
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