SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Judge Pattison said:

“I have listened carefully to all that has been said on your behalf today – I have given careful consideration to it together with the evidence the jury accepted at trial, the social work report with risk assessment, your record of previous offending and an impact statement submitted on behalf of the complainer.

You were convicted by the jury in the High Court in Glasgow of raping the complainer while she lay asleep in her flat and you continued to do so when she woke up. You had met her with her friends in the early hours of the morning near Buchanan Street bus station in Glasgow. They said you could spend some time with them at their student accommodation in the west end while you tried to contact your friends who you had been with earlier in the day. The complainer had been at a nightclub with her friends and was heading home to her new student accommodation at that time via a short stop at a friend’s flat.

You all ended up back at the flat the complainer shared with her friend in the west end of Glasgow just before 3am. The complainer said she was tired and headed to her bedroom almost immediately where she fell asleep after taking her medication including medication to help her sleep. Her two friends remained with you in the living room. Shortly after she went to bed you went to the toilet and then entered her bedroom. You said in evidence this was on her invitation but the jury rejected this explanation.

She woke to you raping her and saying: 'You wanted this.' You continued and ejaculated inside her vagina.

The complainer froze when she woke up. She waited till she thought you had fallen asleep and went back to the living room. She was crying uncontrollably and could not speak. Her friends knew something serious was wrong and asked if she wanted you out. She was inconsolable. They proceeded to throw you out of the flat. The complainer called her mother and the police were then called. You were identified through use of a bank card and video footage shown to the jury.

In her impact statement the complainer says that since that day she has been filled with fear, anxiety, anger, and a constant sense of being unsafe. She says that her one act of kindness toward you was taken advantage of forever changing how she views people and how she approaches her life. She speaks of pain and loss and a deep sense of violation being inflicted upon her. The social work report states that the physical and emotional trauma experienced by the complainer will have been profound and may well be something from which she never fully recovers.

The social work report also says that you engaged in victim blaming and also blamed the Scottish justice system and that you would not have been convicted in Northern Ireland: but let it be clear that the jury concluded that you are to blame for what happened. None of this was the fault of the complainer.

I have assessed your culpability as high – this was a deliberate and opportunistic attack and you have clearly caused the complainer significant trauma and harm. There is no mitigation. Any disinhibition through the abuse of alcohol is neither a defence nor an excuse and in fact aggravates the matter. This was a major invasion of the bodily integrity of a woman 10 years younger in her own home after she had shown you kindness and hospitality and when you had known her for less than an hour.

Given the seriousness of your offending a lengthy custodial sentence is inevitable.

The focus of sentencing today is punishment and deterrence. The risk assessment does not provide a foundation for an extended sentence and I hope that you use your time in custody wisely and benefit from the programmes available to sex offenders in that custodial setting.

You will be sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment backdated to the date of your remand on 4 December 2025.

I will also make a non-harassment order in terms of 234A of the Criminal Procedure Scotland Act 1995.

This will state that you must not approach or contact the complainer or attempt to approach or contact her for an indefinite period. Any breach will result in your arrest and potentially a further additional period of imprisonment.

I have previously directed the clerk of court to intimate details of your convictions to the Scottish Ministers in terms of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007.

In terms of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, I am required to state again that you have been convicted of a sexual offence to which Part 2 of that Act applies.

You will be subject to the notification requirements contained in the Act for an indefinite period.

The Court has certified those facts and the Clerk of Court will shortly give you a copy of that certificate together with a notice which gives further details of the notification requirements with which you must comply.”

13 January 2026