A diagnosis of borderline personality disorder does not necessarily demonstrate impaired mental functioning for the purposes of s 10A of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) or the Verdins principles; the expert evidence must address the severity of the disorder and establish a causal connection between the condition and the offending. Where the sentencing judge rejects the factual premise upon which the psychiatric opinion's causal conclusion depends (here, a perception of threat), the causal connection falls away and there is no evidentiary foundation for reducing moral culpability.
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