Mental illness need not be established as the direct or precipitating cause of an offence to operate as a mitigating factor on sentence; it is sufficient that it materially contributes to the offending, including as a significant indirect or contextual cause. The statutory prohibition on treating drug abuse as a mitigating factor must not lead to insufficient weight being given to a closely related mental illness, particularly where the mental illness and drug abuse are tightly bound up with each other.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 29 later cases that cite this judgment.
11 of the 29 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.