Sentencing following guilty pleas to sexual assault, assault causing bodily harm, and forcible confinement arising from a prolonged and exceptionally violent intimate-partner attack in the victim’s home.
The court emphasized denunciation and deterrence, treated the guilty plea as mitigating, and found multiple aggravating factors including extreme violence, prolonged confinement, breach of trust, and the offender’s lengthy criminal record.
Rejecting the defence submission that a three-year starting point for a major sexual assault applied, the court held that the offender’s record and poor character materially increased moral blameworthiness.
A sentence of 8 years on forcible confinement, less enhanced credit for pre-trial custody, together with concurrent terms on the other counts and ancillary orders, was imposed.
