The Criminal Law (Two Strike Child Sex Offenders) Amendment Bill 2012 amends the Penalties And Sentences Act 1992 to insert a new major Tory sentencing regime of life imprisonment for certain repeat child sex offenders and further amends the Corrective Services Act 2006 to prescribe a minimum non-parole period of 20 years imprisonment for an offender sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment under the new sentencing regime.
The new regime applies where:
- An adult offender is convicted of a relevant serious child sex offence (as defined in the Bill):
- Such offences committed after the commencement of the bill:
- The offender has a prior conviction as an adult for a relevant serious child sex offence stop paragraph the second offence is committed after the conviction of the first offence.
The court in sentencing the offender on that second occasion, must impose life imprisonment which cannot be mitigated or varied.
In our view the fettering of judicial discretion is unfair, unworkable and contrary to our international treaty obligations. Nonetheless the bill has now passed and mandatory periods of imprisonment apply or possession of weapons as categorised above.