The 17-year jail term given to sexual predator Brett David Hill for the five-hour abduction and repeated sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl who was walking to school at Adamstown Heights is "simply too light" and it would be an "affront to the administration of justice" if the Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) did not intervene.
It is rare for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal against the inadequacy of a sentence as long as the maximum 23 years and six months that Hill was given in December.
But Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Huw Baker, SC, on Monday told a three-judge bench of the CCA that, while Judge Roy Ellis, who sentenced Hill in Newcastle District Court, had made no error of fact or law, the sentence was "simply too light".
"It is no more complex than that," Mr Baker said.
"When one looks at the profoundly grave conduct, the effect on the victim and the absence of mitigating factors.... [the sentence] is too low and erroneously so.
"[The DPP] would say the court has to intervene because it would be an affront to the administration of justice to allow for a sentence that is this erroneously lenient to remain."
Mr Baker said Judge Ellis's assessment of the objective seriousness of the offending as "extremely high" was correct, but said the indicative sentences for each charge were too lenient and the overall sentence was afforded too large a degree of concurrency.
The court has to intervene because it would be an affront to the administration of justice to allow for a sentence that is this erroneously lenient to remain.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Huw Baker, SC, said.
Barrister James Trevallion, for Hill, said the sentence given to Hill was not inadequate and even it was found to be lenient it was not so lenient that the CCA should intervene.
After hearing submissions from both parties, the CCA reserved their judgement.
Hill, now 49, is currently not eligible for parole until 2035 at the age of 64.
