Where medical evidence establishes that a severely disabled child requires the care of both parents and that deprivation of either parent's care would cause very substantial and potentially irrecoverable detriment, this constitutes exceptional hardship sufficient to warrant suspension of an otherwise immediate custodial sentence, even for a serious offence such as attempting to pervert the course of justice. The sentencing judge's failure to give sufficient weight to such evidence constitutes an error in the exercise of discretion warranting appellate intervention.
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