Where an offender's mental impairments are causally connected to the offending and the offender has a deprived, traumatic upbringing, the combined interaction of these factors ought to significantly moderate moral culpability, even where the offender has a substantial prior criminal history. An offender with cognitive impairment, schizophrenia, and PTSD arising from childhood sexual abuse is not a particularly suitable vehicle for specific or general deterrence. Cumulation of sentences for offences committed within seconds of each other as part of a single ongoing course of conduct must properly reflect the totality principle.
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