Where co-offenders have markedly different backgrounds of childhood deprivation, the parity principle requires a sentencing differential that reflects the reduced moral culpability attributable to the deprived offender's background, in addition to any differential for lesser role. A one-year differential was insufficient where one co-offender had suffered profound childhood deprivation and played a lesser role, while the other had a stable upbringing and was the instigator. McLeish JA's dissent raises the question of whether the mitigating weight of childhood deprivation may be moderated where the offender subsequently experienced a period of stability.
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