Where an offender's cognitive impairment and mental health conditions are closely linked to childhood deprivation, a sentencing judge does not err by declining to find a separate causal link between the mental conditions and the offending where the only expert evidence does not address causation, provided the mental conditions are taken into account in other ways (more onerous custody, special circumstances, reduced moral culpability via Bugmy principles). The overlap between the two bases for reduced moral culpability means they need not be treated as entirely separate mitigating factors.
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