SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Judge McCallum KC told Fleming:

“Stewart Fleming, on 18 September 2025 at Kilmarnock High Court, you were convicted by a jury of a truly appalling catalogue of offending against five former partners who had the misfortune to find themselves in intimate relationships with you that led to them living under the same roof as you for extended periods of time.

The charges that you were convicted of in relation to those partners are Charges 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 &17.

You were also convicted of a more minor offence of engaging in a course of abusive conduct in relation to another female; namely a contravention of s. 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Sc) Act 2018 in respect of another female who was in a very brief relationship with you. That charge is Charge 18.

Without overly minimising Charge 18, I intend, for obvious reasons, to concentrate my comments on Charges 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 &17.

In relation to Charges 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 &17, you were convicted of emotionally, physically and sexually abusing five separate female partners.

Your abuse involved taking all manner of steps to belittle and control them; to isolate them from friends and family; and to visit physical violence on each of them on numerous occasions.

Your abuse towards them extended to the multiple rapes of each of those five complainers by various means. In some cases, these rapes were carried out by the use of force to overcome resistance or a lack of consent. In some cases, you persisted in sexual penetration after the partner in question withdrew consent. In some cases, your partner in question would eventually give in to your repeated and persistent demands for one form of sexual intercourse or another out of well-founded fear of the consequences of saying no.

A number of your victims spoke of your apparently insatiable demand for sexual intercourse; and your demand or desire to have such intercourse on multiple occasions in a single day, irrespective of their wishes.

It is patently clear that you used your victims to fulfil or meet your own sexual urges and desires with no regard whatsoever for their own wishes; and with no heed or regard whatsoever for their feelings or the consequences for your victims.

Such is the depravity and awfulness of some of the detail of your conduct in this case; and such is my desire to protect the privacy and dignity of your victims, and the dignity and privacy of another individual as much as I can; that I do not intend to go into graphic detail of the conduct in relation to each charge or each victim.

I will provide detail in this regard to the Parole Board for Scotland; and elsewhere if called upon to do so.

I will restrict my comments in this regard to the following.

In regards to Charge 1, amongst other things, your conduct caused your victim to give birth to a baby in the most appalling and humiliating circumstances.

In relation to Charge 4, the rape that you committed occurred against a background of a specific event two days previously that significantly aggravates the gravity of that rape.

In regards to Charge 8, one particular rape was committed in the toilet of a restaurant with the very significant aggravation that a young child was present during your commission of that rape.

In regards to Charge 13, the court heard deeply upsetting evidence of the humiliating circumstances that your victim in that charge was reduced to in regards to her female sanitary needs because of your abusive and controlling conduct towards her.

These are merely four examples from a truly shocking and deeply upsetting litany of your conduct towards these five victims. As I have said before, I do not intend to go into any further details in that regard in this forum in order to preserve, as best I can, the privacy and dignity of your victims and another individual.

One of the most shocking and upsetting aspects of this case was that it was, in my view, quite clear that you exploited the goodness and kindness that your later victims showed towards a child in effect to trap them within the dreadful domestic situation that they found themselves in with you.

Your conduct was appalling and despicable.

The harm that you have caused to your five principal victims is profound. This is evidenced in the Victim Impact Statements available to the court from four of your principal victims; but was, in any event, patently clear when your victims gave evidence.

In your own evidence, you effectively denied all of the allegations against you; seeking to characterise all of your victims, and any other witness who gave evidence against you, as liars. The jury, by its verdicts, rejected your evidence and your denials of any wrongdoing.

As is clear from the Criminal Justice Social Work Report, you continue to deny any wrongdoing. You have shown no remorse or empathy for your victims; and have shown no insight into your own offending behaviour. That Criminal Justice Social Work Report and the risk assessment contained within it also highlights the risk that you will pose to the public, and in particular females who may come to be in an intimate relationship with you, upon your eventual release from custody.

I have listened very carefully to all that has been said on your behalf by you Senior Counsel.

Standing the jury’s verdicts, the position you adopted at trial and have maintained in your discussions with the author of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report, your Senior Counsel very understandably and properly had nothing to say about the circumstances of these offences.

He did, however, point out that you appear as a first offender with no previous convictions of any sort and no outstanding matters. He pointed out that you have a supportive family and a good educational and work record.

You are now aged 31. As has been said, you have no previous convictions; although that factor is tempered by another factor, namely that with each new victim on this indictment, you added to a growing list of victims you had already offended against in terms of this indictment.

I accept that you have shown an ability over the years to better yourself in terms of your employment and educational qualifications.

Beyond those factors, I find no mitigation in your case.

In my assessment, the level of harm that you have caused towards your five principal victims; and the level of your culpability in regards to the offences or crimes that you committed against those five principal victims are both extremely high.

I am quite satisfied that, in your case, the sentencing objectives of punishment, deterrence and public protection significantly outweigh any other sentencing objective in regards to Charges 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17, so that the only appropriate sentence in your case is the imposition of a very significant period of imprisonment in relation to those charges.

Had I been dealing with each of these charges individually, I would have imposed the following sentences in respect of each offence:-

Charge 1 – a sentence of 3 years’ imprisonment;

Charge 2 – a sentence of 2 years and 6 months’ imprisonment;

Charge 3 – a sentence of 7 years’ imprisonment;

Charge 4 – a sentence of 6 years’ imprisonment;

Charge 6 – a sentence of 2 years and 6 months’ imprisonment;

Charge 7 – a sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment;

Charge 8 – a sentence of 9 years’ imprisonment;

Charge 9 – a sentence of 2 years and 6 months’ imprisonment;

Charge 10 – a sentence of 2 years and 6 months’ imprisonment;

Charge 11 – a sentence of 8 years’ imprisonment;

Charge 13 – a sentence of 3 years and 6 months’ imprisonment;

Charge 14 – a sentence of 8 years and 6 months’ imprisonment, with 6 months of the sentence attributable to the statutory domestic abuse aggravation;

Charge 15 – a sentence of 3 years and 6 months’ imprisonment;

Charge 16 – a sentence of 8 years and 6 months’ imprisonment, with 6 months of the sentence attributable to the statutory domestic abuse aggravation;

Charge 17 – a sentence of 2 years’ imprisonment; with 2 months of the sentence attributable to the statutory domestic abuse aggravation; and

Charge 18 - in regards to this charge, I would have imposed a community based disposal such as a Community Payback Order with an Unpaid Work Requirement.

However, in imposing sentence in a case such as this, the court must have regard to the sentencing principle of Totality; in other words, to identify and impose an overall period of imprisonment that reflects the totality of offending, but that is not disproportionate or excessive. The total period of imprisonment that would result if each of these individual sentences were added together would, in my assessment, be disproportionate and excessive.

Accordingly, I will instead impose three cumulo sentences in respect of the three separate groups or types of offences that you have been convicted of as follows:-

(i)             In respect of the offences of rape and the offence of sexual assault contained in Charges 3, 4, 8, 11, 14, 16 & 17, I impose a cumulo period of imprisonment of 17 years;

(ii)           In respect of the crimes of assault contained in Charges 2, 7 & 10, I impose a cumulo sentence of 6 years’ imprisonment; and

(iii)         In respect of the offences of abusive behaviour contained in Charges 1, 6, 9, 13, 15 & 18, I impose a cumulo sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment.

Those three cumulo sentences or periods of custody or imprisonment will be ordered to be served concurrently; so that the overall period of imprisonment that I impose is a period of 17 years.

Furthermore, looking again at each of the sexual offences contained in Charges 3, 4, 8, 11, 14, 16 & 17, and having regard to the Risk Assessment contained in the Criminal Justice Social Work Report, I am satisfied that the requirements of s. 210A (1) (b) of the Criminal Procedure (Sc) Act 1995 are met in your case so that I should impose an Extended Sentence on you in regard to those charges. Put simply, I am satisfied that the nature and pattern of your offending behaviour, and the level of risk that you will pose in the future, is such that the normal licence provisions would not be adequate in your case to protect the public, and in particular females who come to be in an intimate relationship with you, from serious harm from you.

When you are serving the Extension Period in the community, you will be subject to licence conditions fixed by the Scottish Ministers. If during the Extension Period you fail to comply with the conditions of your licence, it may be revoked and you may be returned to custody for a further period in respect of Charges 3, 4, 8, 11, 14, 16 & 17.

In regards to Charges 3, 4, 8, 11, 14, 16 & 17, I identify an Extension Period of 5 years as the appropriate Extension Period to impose.

Therefore, in respect of Charges 3, 4, 8, 11, 14, 16 & 17, I impose a cumulo Extended Sentence of 22 years; with a Custodial Part of 17 years; and an Extension Period thereafter of 5 years.

Given that I have decided that the three cumulo sentences that I have imposed should be served concurrently, the overall effect is that you will serve a total period of 17 years’ imprisonment; followed by an Extension Period thereafter of 5 years.

These sentences imposed will be ordered to date from 18 September 2025 when I first remanded you into custody following upon your conviction.

As a result of your conviction on Charges 3, 4, 8, 11, 14, 16 & 17, you are automatically subject to the Notification Requirements contained in Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 in relation to each of those charges or offences.

In addition, I previously certified that the commission of each of the offences in Charges 6, 9, 13, 15 & 18 contained a significant sexual element; so that the Notification Requirements contained in Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 are also engaged in relation to those charges and convictions.

Given the sentences imposed in this case, the Notification Requirements will be for an Indefinite Period.

In respect of the five complainers variously named in Charges 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17, I shall make a Non Harassment Order in relation to each of those five complainers or victims whereby you are prohibited from contacting, attempting to contact, approaching or attempting to approach any of those five complainers or victims for an Indefinite Period.

In respect of the complainer or victim in Charge 18, I shall make a Non-Harassment Order whereby you are prohibited from contacting, attempting to contact, approaching or attempting to approach that complainer or victim for a period of 5 years."

13 November 2025