Sentencing Offenders with Impaired Mental Functioning R v Verdins, Buckley and Vo [2007] VSCA 102; (2007) 169 A Crim R 581 Maxwell P, Vincent and Buchanan JJ

Abstract

The Victorian Court of Appeal decision in R v Verdins, Buckley and Vo [2007] VSCA 102; (2007) 169 A Crim R 581 provides both a synthesis of the evolving law in Australia on the relevance to sentencing of impaired mental functioning and a restatement of important issues of principle. It liberalises the circumstances in which such information can impact upon sentencing to the advantage of the offender and clarifies when psychiatric symptomatology, amounting to a 'mental disorder' within the terms of a DSM or ICD definition, or falling short of a frank diagnosis, can be used in the sentencing process. It constitutes Australia's most sophisticated and subtle analysis of the relationship between impaired mental functioning and sentencing.