NSW Courts may soon be required to apply current sentencing practices to all crimes, regardless of when they were committed, under proposed changes to State laws.
Announced by Attorney General, Mark Speakman, the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ) has published a fact sheet on the proposed sentencing reforms which are expected to be included in a bill to amend the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999.
“Perpetrators of sexual violence and other criminals who’ve evaded the criminal justice system for years, or even decades, will now face the prospect of tougher sentencing from NSW courts, which will no longer be bound by outdated sentencing practices,” Mr Speakman said.
“Right now, except for child sexual abuse, courts must apply sentencing patterns and practices related to the offence that were in place at the time the offence was committed, instead of at the time of sentencing,” he said.
“But sometimes those guideposts don’t reflect our community’s current stance on crimes – this is especially so for heinous acts like sexual assault or domestic violence.”
Mr Speakman said asking courts to put themselves in the shoes of a judge years or decades earlier could be impractical, inefficient and produced inconsistent outcomes.
The Attorney General sad the bill, currently being drafted, would change this, “so people who committed offences years ago will be sentenced according to current practices”.
“It’s unacceptable for an offender to get more lenient treatment, just because they’d dodged police detection, or their offence had not yet been reported by an often traumatised victim,” he said.
“While courts will still be guided by the maximum penalty and any standard non-parole period that existed at the time of the offence, historical offenders will now face the prospect of tougher penalties, particularly for crimes like sexual assault that are often reported later.”
Mr Speakman said the proposed reforms followed a Government review of historical sentencing practices and 2018 legislation that ensured child sex offenders were sentenced according to contemporary practices.
“This applies consistency to all offending so we won’t perpetuate any past errors by using old practices, which don’t align with contemporary attitudes or our current understanding of serious crimes like sexual assault and domestic violence,” he said.
Mr Speakman said key stakeholders would be consulted on a draft exposure bill this year, with a final bill expected to be introduced next year.
DCJ’s two-page Reform to sentencing practices: Justice Fact Sheet can be accessed at this PS News link.
