EL-AFCHAL v R [2015] NSWCCA 112

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: EL-AFCHAL v R [2015] NSWCCA 112 Hearing dates: 20 April 2015 Decision date: 25 May 2015 Before: Hoeben CJ at CL at [1]; Hall J at [2]; R A Hulme J at [73] Decision: (1) The applicant be granted leave to amend the Notice of Appeal in accordance with the amended Notice of Appeal dated 18 May 2015 to include Ground 2.

(2) The application for leave to appeal be granted.

(3) The aggregate sentence imposed by the District Court on 21 November 2013 be amended so that the non-parole period of the sentence is taken to have commenced on 4 August 2013 and is to expire on 3 August 2015. The balance of term of 2 years is to commence on 4 August 2015 and is to expire on 3 August 2017.

(4) The appeal be otherwise dismissed. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – appeal against sentence – whether the sentencing judge erred in his consideration of the evidence regarding applicant's rehabilitation and delay between arrest and sentence –delay between arrest and sentence on the subject charges in part attributable to the applicant's offending in Queensland and subsequent proceedings – relating thereto – sentencing judge took delay and rehabilitation into account as interrelated matters – delay and rehabilitation was taken into account and sentence reduced accordingly – sentencing judge found that the applicant had achieved some progress towards rehabilitation – whether the sentencing judge erred by not finding 'substantial' progress towards rehabilitation – the sentencing judge made a factual error as to the period over which the application's progress towards rehabilitation took place – this did not give rise to error – appeal dismissed