Where an offender's failure to apologise or show contrition flows from a diagnosed personality disorder (here, Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder), that failure loses significance as an aggravating factor in sentencing. Fresh evidence of subjective circumstances may be admitted on appeal under s 75A(7)-(8) of the Supreme Court Act 1970 (NSW) even where it could have been obtained for trial, in exceptional circumstances such as where an unrepresented litigant's personality disorder contributed to the failure to adduce the evidence. The stress of imprisonment on an offender with a serious heart condition is a relevant sentencing consideration distinct from the adequacy of prison medical treatment.
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