First Baseline Sentence Handed Down

Date of Publication
30 July 2015

On 30 July 2015, the Supreme Court handed down the first sentence under Victoria’s baseline sentencing scheme.

The Supreme Court sentenced an offender (who cannot be named for legal reasons) who had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of committing an indecent act with a child under 16 years and four charges of incest.

One of the charges of incest was committed after 2 November 2014, when the baseline sentencing scheme commenced in Victoria.

The baseline sentence for a charge of incest is 10 years. This means that parliament intends the median (midpoint average) sentence for charges of incest to be 10 years.

In this case, the court determined that the sentence on the baseline charge should fall below the median, taking into account all relevant sentencing factors, including the full and frank admissions of the offender, his early plea of guilty, remorse for his crime, prior good character, prospects of rehabilitation, and mental illness.

For this baseline incest charge, the offender was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.

The offender was sentenced to a total effective sentence of 6 years and 8 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 4 years.

Because the total effective sentence was less than 20 years, the baseline scheme required the non-parole period to be a minimum of 60% of the total effective sentence.

The sentencing remarks for this case are available on the Australasian Legal Information Institute’s website.

The Council will be monitoring and evaluating the baseline sentencing scheme as part of its ongoing work to conduct research and disseminate information on sentencing matters to members of the judiciary and other interested persons.