Even where Brown v The Queen has expanded the Verdins principles to encompass personality disorders, an offender must still establish a material causal nexus between the personality disorder and the offending in order for the impairment to mitigate moral culpability. Expert evidence that there is no direct causal nexus will preclude the application of Verdins principles 1-4. The question whether a moderate personality disorder (as opposed to the severe disorder in Brown) constitutes an impairment of mental functioning within Verdins remains open.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 12 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 12 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.