Where an offender's borderline intellectual disability and mental impairments are relied upon to reduce moral culpability under Verdins, a causal connection between the impairments and the offending must be established; it cannot simply be inferred from a low IQ. Concessions or failures to raise Verdins arguments at the plea hearing will generally preclude raising them on appeal (Romero applied). An offender's denial of offending may properly be taken into account as a factor contributing to delay between offending and prosecution in child sexual abuse cases, and it would be 'preposterous' for an offender who committed offences against very young children to claim an automatic discount for the passage of time where the delay was attributable to the victims' youth and vulnerability.
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