SENTENCING ACT 1995 - SECT 98
SENTENCING ACT 1995 - SECT 98
98 . Indefinite imprisonment, superior court may impose
(1) If a superior
court —
(a)
sentences an offender for an indictable offence to a term of imprisonment; and
(b) does
not suspend that imprisonment; and
(c) does
not make a parole eligibility order in respect of that term,
it may in addition to
imposing the term of imprisonment for the offence (the nominal sentence ),
order the offender to be imprisoned indefinitely.
(2) Indefinite
imprisonment must not be ordered unless the court is satisfied on the balance
of probabilities that when the offender would otherwise be released from
custody in respect of the nominal sentence or any other term, he or she would
be a danger to society, or a part of it, because of one or more of these
factors:
(a) the
exceptional seriousness of the offence;
(b) the
risk that the offender will commit other indictable offences;
(c) the
character of the offender and in particular —
(i)
any psychological, psychiatric or medical condition
affecting the offender;
(ii)
the number and seriousness of other offences of which the
offender has been convicted;
(d) any
other exceptional circumstances.
(3) In deciding
whether an offender would be a danger to society, or a part of it, the court
—
(aa) is
not to decide that the offender would not be a danger merely because of the
possibility that an order might be made in respect of the offender under the
High Risk Serious Offenders Act 2020 ; and
(a) is
not bound by section 6 but is bound by any guidelines on the imposition of
indefinite imprisonment in a guideline judgment given under section 143; and
(b) may
have regard to such evidence as it thinks fit.
[Section 98 amended: No. 17 of 2016 s. 55; No. 45
of 2016 s. 76; No. 29 of 2020 s. 121.]