SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing Lord Harrower made the following remarks in court:

"Tandy Marie Swinton, you have been found guilty, at the High Court in Edinburgh, of the culpable homicide and attempted robbery of William Lambie.

William Lambie was a frail man in his late nineties, living alone in Dundee, his wife having died many years ago.  Although he walked with the assistance of crutches or a stick, he enjoyed a good quality of life.  He was in regular contact with his son and daughter-in-law and had many friends, some of whom would take him out for a coffee and a bite to eat.  They described Mr Lambie as being always smartly dressed and still mentally very acute.  He could quote liberally from Shakespeare, and had no difficulty with modern technology, using his iPad to attend church remotely while in hospital.  Mr Lambie’s son has provided me with a statement explaining the distress that he and his wife suffered while witnessing Mr Lambie’s deterioration in the weeks before he died.  No sentence of this court can alleviate their anguish. 

The circumstances of the offence were as follows.  On 15 April 2024, at about 5pm, you knocked on Mr Lambie’s door, and when he answered, you pretended to be a carer, also saying that you needed to use his toilet.  You had used similar excuses many times before to gain entry into the flats of elderly people, including Mr Lambie himself in 2020, when you robbed him of £100.  On this occasion, too, you demanded money from him, and when he said he didn’t have any, you pushed him on the chest, using both hands, causing him to fall to the floor.  Mr Lambie had the presence of mind to activate an alarm which he wore on a piece of string around his neck, and his desperate pleas to the call handler were recorded and played in court. 

In that recording, Mr Lambie could be heard saying he had been attacked, complaining about being in agony, and asking for the police.  You interrupted the call to tell the call handler that there was nothing wrong, even though Mr Lambie was clearly in pain and needing help.  Then, in a low whisper that you must have hoped could not be heard, you repeatedly demanded, “Where’s your money?  Where’s your money?”  Half-way through the twenty-minute call you left the flat, still empty-handed, no doubt to ensure you wouldn’t be around when the police arrived.  The alarm was later found on the living room sofa, consistently with what Mr Lambie later told the police, that you snapped it from his neck.

Mr Lambie was taken to Ninewells hospital, where he was found to have sustained a fracture to the femoral neck of his right thigh requiring a partial hip replacement.  Following surgery, he was transferred to the Royal Victoria Hospital for rehabilitation, but his condition rapidly deteriorated.  He had no appetite and wouldn’t eat despite different options being tried.  By the time of his death, on 26 May 2024 in St Columba’s Care Home, Mr Lambie had lost about one third of his body weight.   The cause of death was gastric haemorrhage.  Without the protection provided by food, Mr Lambie’s stomach lining and duodenum had become eroded by the corrosive effects of gastric acid, likely exacerbated by stress associated with the assault. 

In sentencing you, I must make an assessment of culpability and harm.  In a case of culpable homicide, the harm caused is necessarily of the utmost seriousness.  So far as culpability is concerned, I accept that the jury must have been satisfied that you neither intended to kill Mr Lambie, and that nor were you wickedly reckless as to whether he lived or died.  However, in pushing an elderly and infirm man to the ground, you were certainly reckless as to whether harm would be caused, and that provides a starting point for assessing culpability.  I must then take account of the following significantly aggravating factors: the fact that this assault occurred in Mr Lambie’s own home; your history of violence against Mr Lambie himself; your other previous convictions for the same kind of offence; the fact that you were still on licence in respect of a sentence imposed for one of these offences; the level of planning involved; the fact that the assault was carried out in the course of an attempted robbery; and your actions immediately after the assault, in which you attempted to prevent Mr Lambie communicating with the call handler and gaining immediate access to the emergency services he needed.

There is little to be said in mitigation, except perhaps for your difficult personal circumstances, including your own struggle with drug addiction.  There might have been more to be said in your favour if you had shown even the slightest remorse for having committed this offence.  Instead, when interviewed by the social workers, you told a pack of lies in the hope that this might result in what you referred to as a “good report” for the court.

Tandy Swinton, having taken all the circumstances into account, I am satisfied that a significant custodial sentence is inevitable in your case.  However, in light of the social worker’s assessment of risk, I also consider that an extended sentence is necessary in order to protect the public, and in particular the elderly, from serious harm from you.  The sentence will therefore be in two parts. The first part, the custodial part, will be one of imprisonment for a period of 81 months, reduced from 90 months to take account of your plea of guilty to culpable homicide tendered at the start of the trial.  The second part, known as the extension period, will be one of three years.  During this period you will be under supervision in the community and 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 this indictment.  The sentence will be backdated to 17 April 2024 when you were remanded in custody."