R v TW (No 2)

In *R v TW (No 2)*, the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory considered the power of a court to re-open sentencing proceedings. The appeal concerned the sentences imposed on the respondent, TW, for offences relating to child pornography.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether it possessed the power to re-open sentencing proceedings to correct an error, and if so, whether this power extended to both Territory and Commonwealth sentencing matters. A further question arose as to whether the composition of the court re-opening the proceedings needed to be identical to the court that originally imposed the sentence.

The Court affirmed that it had the power to re-open sentencing proceedings to correct an error, a power applicable to both Territory and Commonwealth sentencing proceedings. It was held that the composition of the court re-examining the sentence did not need to be the same as the court that initially imposed it. The Court found that an error had occurred in the original sentencing and proceeded to amend the sentences imposed on counts 11 and 12 of the indictment.

Consequently, the Court ordered that the sentence for using a carriage service to access child pornography be amended to imprisonment for one year and four months, commencing on 18 March 2014 and ending on 17 July 2015. The sentence for using a carriage service to distribute child pornography was amended to imprisonment for two years and two months, commencing on 18 July 2015 and ending on 17 September 2017.