# Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Criminal Justice and Support for Victims) Act (Northern Ireland) 2015, Section 6: Aggravating factors


(1) Where a court is considering for the purposes of sentencing the seriousness of an offence under section 1 or 2, the court must treat the following as aggravating factors—
(a) the offence was committed by a public official in relation to the performance of her or his duties;
(b) the offence was committed by a member of the family of the victim;
(c) the offence was committed by a person in a position of trust;
(d) the offence was committed against a child;
(e) the offence was committed against a vulnerable adult;
(f) the offence was committed by the use of threats against a member of the family of the victim;
(g) the offender deliberately or by gross negligence endangered the life of the victim;
(h) the offence caused serious harm to the victim; or
(i) the offence was committed by a person who has previously been convicted—
(i) of an offence under section 1 or 2;
(ii) of an offence under any provision repealed by this Act;
(iii) in respect of anything done outside Northern Ireland which was not an offence mentioned in sub-paragraph (i) or (ii) but would have been such an offence if done in Northern Ireland.
(2) In this section—
“public official” means—
(a)a member of the Northern Ireland civil service or the United Kingdom civil service;
(b)a person employed by a body established by an Act of Parliament or by Northern Ireland legislation;
(c)the holder of an office established by an Act of Parliament or by Northern Ireland legislation;
(d)a police officer;
“serious harm” has the same meaning as in Article 3 of the Criminal Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2008.

---
Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nia/2015/2/section/6 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/human-trafficking-and-exploitation-criminal-justice-and-support-for-victims-act-northern-ireland-2015/section-6
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.