SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Judge McFadyen said:

“You have been found guilty of serious sexual offences committed against three young women over a period of just over nine months in 2022 and 2023: the sexual assault of a young woman who was asleep and intoxicated, the rape of another young woman, who was also asleep and intoxicated, less than three months later and then, in April 2023, when you were on bail for the rape, the sexual assault of a young woman from overseas whom you had befriended through a dating app and had taken in your car to a remote location. 

In each case you preyed on your victim’s vulnerability – in the first two cases that was intoxication, but in the third case it was the isolation of your victim in a remote woodland location: she was fortunately fully conscious and she was able to struggle free of her jacket in order to escape from the car and run through the woods and into a main road where she ran into the path of a car which stopped to help her. 

You also pled guilty to two breaches of bail curfews, themselves imposed for the protection of the public.

I have the benefit of a full justice social work report and two professional risk assessments, all of which assess you as at high risk.

I take account of your age and immaturity in considering and passing sentence, although, despite that young age your attitudes and behaviours are entrenched, and the risk assessors do not see any early prospect of change or rehabilitation.  Plainly the court requires to impose a lengthy sentence of imprisonment.  The only question is whether that should be a fixed term sentence of imprisonment, with an extension period or whether I should impose an order for lifelong restriction. 

I can only make such an order if I am, satisfied on a balance of probabilities that the risk criteria are met, i.e.

“that the nature of, or the circumstances of the commission of, the offence of which the convicted person has been found guilty either in themselves or as part of a pattern of behaviour are such as to demonstrate that there is a likelihood that he, if at liberty, will seriously endanger the lives, or physical or psychological well-being, of members of the public at large” (section 210E, Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act, 1995).

In making that assessment I require to consider the risk assessment reports which have been commissioned.  These are thorough reports which make troubling reading with regard to the risk that you present and the possibilities for mitigation of that risk over time; both of them assess the risk that your being at liberty presents to the safety of the public at large as being high.

I am satisfied that the risk criteria are indeed met on the balance of probabilities and it is appropriate and indeed necessary for the protection of the public that I make an order for lifelong restriction.

I am required to specify a punishment part or custodial part of your sentence and there are complex rules as to how that is calculated.

First, I require to calculate overall custodial period which would be appropriate if I were imposing a normal or extended sentence, and apply to that period the principal of totality in order to arrive at a period which properly reflects your offending.  I then require to strip out from that period the part of that period which would otherwise be attributable to public protection. 

Finally, I require to reduce the resulting period, normally so as to arrive at a period at which, following a conventional sentence of four years or more, you would be entitled to be considered for release on licence. 

I consider that the appropriate sentences for individual charges, taking account of your age, would be as follows:

Charge 1 (sexual assault) – three and a half years

Charge 2 (rape) – six years

Charge 3 (breach of bail curfew) – six months reduced from eight months

Charge 4 (breach of bail curfew) – six months reduced from eight months

Charge 5 (sexual assault, aggravated by being on bail) – two and a half years including 6 months for bail aggravation.

This amounts to thirteen years, which I consider would be excessive, taking account of the totality of your offending and I consider that an appropriate period for a determinate custodial sentence would be 11 years.  I require to strip out from that calculation the period which would otherwise be attributable to public protection and I shall therefore reduce the period to nine years, in respect of retribution and deterrence.  That period finally falls to be reduced in terms of section 2B of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act 1993 and will be reduced to four and a half years, with effect from 27 April 2023.

It does not follow that you will be eligible for release once that period of four and a half years has elapsed.  You may never be released.  You will only be released when and if the Parole Board are satisfied that imprisonment is no longer necessary for the protection of the public and you would then be released on parole or licence, but you will be subject to recall to prison for the remainder of your life if you breach the terms of the licence.

I shall make non-harassment orders in respect of all three women, that you do not approach or contact them in any way directly or indirectly for an indefinite period.  If you breach that order you are liable to arrest without warrant and imprisonment.

You have already been informed of the sex offenders’ notification requirements; in light of the sentence which I have just passed, these will apply for an indefinite period.”

16 December 2025