The State of Western Australia v Krakouer

The appeal before the court was brought by the State of Western Australia against the sentence imposed on Jason Colin Edward Krakouer, who was convicted of aggravated home burglary, assault occasioning bodily harm, and deprivation of liberty. The State argued that the individual sentence for the aggravated home burglary offence and the total effective sentence were manifestly inadequate. The court allowed the appeal and resentenced Krakouer. The appeal hinged on whether the individual sentence for the aggravated home burglary offence was manifestly inadequate, and whether the total effective sentence infringed the first limb of the totality principle. In assessing manifest inadequacy, the court took into account the maximum penalty for the offence, the minimum mandatory penalty, the aggravating features of the offence, the mitigating circumstances, and the significance of general deterrence and personal deterrence as sentencing considerations. The court concluded that the sentence of 2 years 8 months' immediate imprisonment for the aggravated home burglary offence was unreasonable or plainly unjust and failed to reflect the criminality involved in the offending. The court also found that the total effective sentence of 3 years 10 months' imprisonment did not reflect the seriousness of the aggravated home burglary offence considered alone. In re-sentencing Krakouer, the court imposed a sentence of 5 years' immediate imprisonment for the aggravated home burglary offence, no penalty for the assault occasioning bodily harm offence, and 1 year's immediate imprisonment for the deprivation of liberty offence to be served cumulatively on the sentence for the aggravated home burglary offence. The total effective sentence was set at 6 years' imprisonment, with the sentence backdated to 27 August 2020 to take account of time spent in custody, and Krakouer remaining eligible for parole.