Where a non-causative mental illness contributes to the formation of extremist views that motivate terrorism offending, and the offender continues to hold those views, the mental illness may increase rather than decrease the weight given to community protection in sentencing. The failure to address the community protection implications of a mental health condition that contributed to radicalisation may be fatal to a sentencing appeal. The comparison between terrorism offences and attempted murder is misplaced because terrorism is fundamentally concerned with the threat to civil society rather than solely the risk to human life.
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