The principles in Bugmy v The Queen concerning the relevance of a deprived background to sentencing apply with equal force to cases of severe physical and sexual abuse perpetrated on an offender by state custody officers during the offender's formative years. Where the underlying causes of an offender's previous criminal history are explained by childhood abuse in state custody, those causes diminish the relevance of the criminal history as an indicator of moral culpability for current offending. A period spent in custody pursuant to an order later found to be unlawful is a relevant mitigating factor.
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