Where expert evidence explicitly supports the application of the fifth Verdins limb (that imprisonment will weigh more heavily on the offender due to mental health conditions), a sentencing judge's failure to address that evidence or refer to Verdins in sentencing remarks will support an inference that the judge failed to take the mitigating factor into account, constituting sentencing error that reopens the sentencing discretion. However, the weight to be given to the fifth limb depends on the circumstances, and it may not be a very weighty consideration where the supporting material is limited.
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