Where a sentencing judge intends to depart from an agreed statement of facts by recourse to other material in evidence, procedural fairness requires that the parties be informed of that intention and given an opportunity to deal with it. A custodial sentence that will be significantly more burdensome for a prisoner by reason of mental illness or intellectual disability is a relevant mitigating factor, even where the mental condition was not causally connected to the offending. The relative youth of an offender will rarely reduce the weight of general deterrence for serious sexual offences, but youth combined with intellectual disability may warrant moderation where the offender had less ability to reason against associating with criminal conduct.
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