appeal against sentence — using carriage service to groom a person under the age of 16 years for sexual activity offence contrary to s 474.27(1) of the Commonwealth Criminal Code, using a carriage service to solicit child exploitation material offence contrary to s 474.19(1)(a)(iv) — additional state offences — additional offence of using a carriage service to transmit child exploitation material offence contrary to s 474.19(1)(a)(iii) taken into account pursuant to s 16BA — original sentence imposed 10 years’ and 6 months imprisonment with a 7 year non-parole period — guilty plea — s 16A(2)(g) — Xiao v R error identified — there is no good reason why a quantified discount would apply for the New South Wales offences but not the Commonwealth offences, to reflect the utilitarian value of the guilty plea — at time Xiao decided, s 16A(2)(g) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) required sentencing court to take into account “if the person has pleaded guilty to the charge in respect of the offence – that fact” — S 16A amended so that since 20 July 2020 s 16A(2)(g) now provides that a sentencing court must take into account “if the person has pleaded guilty to the charge in respect of the offence: (i) that fact; and (ii) the time of the plea; and (iii) the degree to which that fact and the timing of the plea resulted in any benefit to the community or any victim of or witness to the offence” — in resentencing offence, this Court should apply s 16A(2)(g) in its present form which gives effect to aspects of the utilitarian value of a guilty plea as described in Xiao v R and Bae v R — offender’s guilty pleas entered at early stage of proceeding with effect of pleas of guilty that victim and other witnesses not required to give evidence at trial — utilitarian value to offender’s guilty pleas but did not reflect remorse or contrition on their part — guilty pleas entered in face of overwhelming Crown case against offender — any allowance for pleas to be confined solely to utilitarian value of pleas — re-sentence — nature and circumstances of the offence — s 16A(2)(a) — serious examples of offences of this type — offences involved a young and vulnerable girl who was subjected to sustained and predatory criminal communications from the much older offender for the purposes of the offender’s own sexual gratification — antecedents — s 16A(2)(m) — offender had significant prior history of offences of this type for which they had been sentenced on two separate occasions to significant terms of imprisonment — offender previously sentenced for 32 months’ imprisonment with a 21 month non-parole period for 4 counts of possession of child exploitation material and 5 counts of using a carriage service to transmit child exploitation material — offender bears all hallmarks of a hardened recidivist — contrition — s 16A(2)(f) — rehabilitation — s 16A(2)(n) — offender not demonstrated genuine remorse or insight and shown little interest in custodial rehabilitation programs — appears established and apparently intractable attitude of the offender — offender presents ongoing risk to community against background of earlier offending which has not deterred them from further serious crimes of this type — sentence — imposed 10 years’ and 4 months imprisonment with a 6 year and 11 month non-parole period
