The Court of Appeal refused leave to appeal against a total effective sentence of 6 years and 6 months' imprisonment for multiple sexual offences against children and a vulnerable adult, finding the sentence was within range despite the applicant's extremely low IQ (53-62), youth at the time of some offending, and early guilty plea. The Court held that while the applicant's intellectual disability properly reduced the weight of general deterrence, specific deterrence, denunciation, and moral culpability, the sentencing principle of community protection survived unaffected by cognitive deficit, and the objective gravity of the repeated offending against particularly vulnerable victims — which would ordinarily attract a sentence well into double figures — justified the sentence imposed. The Court endorsed the sentencing judge's rejection of a Youth Justice centre disposition as inadequate given the seriousness of the offending.
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