The Verdins principles regarding impaired mental functioning and sentencing are not limited to cases where the offender was incapable of rational decision-making. They extend to any case where impaired mental functioning reduced the offender's capacity to resist offending, including through disinhibition. Where an offender's substance abuse is linked to an underlying mental condition rather than being purely wilful, it may be treated as mitigating. Knowledge that conduct is wrong does not preclude a finding of reduced moral culpability under the Verdins framework.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 31 later cases that cite this judgment.
4 of the 31 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.