If the accused person is found guilty by a Magistrate, Judge or Jury or pleads guilty to some or all of the charges they have been charged with, a date for a sentencing hearing will be made. The accused is now known as the offender.

When the offender is sentenced by the Magistrate or Judge you don’t have to attend court unless you want to.

Depending on what crime the offender has been found guilty of or pleaded guilty to, you may have the right to give the court a written statement about how the crime has affected your life. This is called a Victim Impact Statement (VIS). Find out more about Victim Impact Statements in the Victim Impact Statements Information Package. (PDF, 162kb)
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The ODPP lawyer will need to check your VIS before it is given to the court. Your VIS will be made available for the Defence solicitor and the offender to read. Sometimes changes may have to be made to your VIS. You may be able to read your VIS to the court or ask someone else to read it for you at the sentencing hearing.

The Magistrate or Judge may also request a Pre-Sentence Report on the offender. This gives the court information about the offender. This report is prepared by someone from the Probation and Parole Service. It helps the court decide on what sentence they should give the offender.

Other information that may be given to the court at the sentencing hearing includes; the offender’s criminal history, the offender’s personal circumstances, other cases that are similar to this one, a statement of facts describing how the offender broke the law, and information about what the offender may have been doing between committing the crime and the sentence date.

The law says the court must take into account all these things before deciding on the offender’s sentence. Sentences can range from a fine, community service order, periodic detention, home detention or other imprisonment. It will depend on each offender and what happened in the case. The ODPP solicitor can tell you more about how the offender will be sentenced. Find out more about sentencing in the Sentencing Information Package. (PDF, 159kb)
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