Incest case highlights complexities of Victoria's new baseline sentencing laws
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Version 0 of 1. Victoria’s new baseline sentencing laws have come under scrutiny in a prosecution appeal against a father’s six-year jail sentence for incest with his teenage daughter. Related: Law expert slams West Australian Labor for backing new mandatory sentencing The man – who can’t be named for legal reasons – was sentenced to a maximum of six years and eight months prison in July under new sentencing legislation that set a median prison sentence for some serious offences. The reforms increased the median sentence for incest with a minor to 10 years. The director of public prosecutions, John Champion, has appealed the man’s sentence in Victoria’s supreme court on the grounds there was an error in the way the sentencing judge interpreted the new laws. In doing so prosecutors have highlighted the challenge facing judges when following the new sentencing guidelines. “It’s difficult to interpret the scheme,” Champion told the court on Friday. Five supreme court justices have been asked to look at the man’s original sentence set by judge Lex Lasry. The charges would have normally gone before the county court, but were escalated to the supreme court to allow Lasry to examine how the state’s first baseline sentence would work in practice. Lasry outlined his calculations and the reasons for setting a sentence below the 10-year median, in 22 pages of notes. On Friday, judge Chris Maxwell said the sentencing judge had followed the guidelines. “I’m still not clear how this judge or any other judge could do anything different,” he said. Defence counsel Tim Marsh said there didn’t appear to be clear “guideposts” and, while he opposed the appeal against his client’s sentence, he noted its complexities. “This is highly unusual legislation,” he said. “We’re dealing with such an erratically difficult way of sentencing.” Related: NSW introduces mandatory minimum sentencing bill for one-punch assaults Calculations surrounding which cases deserved to go above or below the median seemed to come down to serendipity, he said. Baseline sentencing has been criticised by the Law Institute of Victoria for its potential to result in unjust sentences and court delays. “I do not suggest there is a yellow brick road that we can follow to get out of this quagmire,” Marsh said. The hearing continues. |