SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Arthurson told O’Kane:

Mr John McLardie was an extremely well-respected and popular member of his community in Govanhill, and a much-loved member of his wider family and friendship group.  On three separate occasions he had served as chair of the Govanhill Housing Association.  He had not long commenced his retirement when he was attacked shortly after 6pm on a busy public thoroughfare, namely Victoria Road, Glasgow, on 28 April 2023.  He sustained catastrophic head injuries in that attack, in particular a traumatic brain injury with acute right frontoparietal and temporal fractures, with subarachnoid and extra-axial haemorrhaging.  His subsequent death in a care home in Glasgow on 31 December 2023 was directly attributable to the devastating injuries which he had suffered in the course of that attack upon him on 28 April 2023.

Ethan O’Kane, on 10 December 2025 at Glasgow High Court you were convicted by a jury after trial of the culpable homicide of Mr McLardie, who was then aged 68, by striking him on the head and causing him to fall to the ground and strike his head on a pavement at Victoria Road and sustain blunt force trauma from which he later died.  A verdict of acquittal was returned by the jury in respect of your co-accused.

You are presently aged 20, and you were aged 17 at the time of this crime.  No previous convictions have been libelled against you and a criminal justice social work report in respect of you is now available.  That report refers to a conviction which I have now learned was on indictment for an analogous offence of violence, that relevant conviction being dated 14 May 2023. Following your conviction by the jury in the present case no motion for bail was made by your counsel, who advised the court that you recognised the serious nature of this matter.

Rather than rendering assistance to your stricken victim, you promptly fled the scene of your crime that day.  After learning of Mr McLardie’s death, on 3 January 2024, only days after his death, you in text messages stated that “the c*** died” and “c***’s dead bro”.  I bear these remarks in mind as I hear and read of your present expressions of remorse.

Sentencing in a case of this nature is a balancing exercise, marking the gravity of the crime by way of the sentencing purposes of retribution and deterrence alongside, given your age at the time of your crime and indeed your age now, the requirement to weigh matters of prospective rehabilitation heavily in the scales.  In that latter regard I note the largely positive terms of the now available background report and also your counsel’s specific submission to the jury in commending your evidence before them as forthright and mature.

This attack by you had terrible and indeed fatal consequences for your victim.  It involved however a single blow on your part, albeit to the head of your vulnerable victim, who was a complete stranger to you.  You have advised the author of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report that you had smoked cannabis that day, and you described your behaviour as impulsive.  The use of cannabis and cocaine was normalised in your circle of friends.    

I have listened with care to the cogent submissions advanced on your behalf this morning in mitigation by your highly experienced counsel, and propose to take into account in particular what has been said by him regarding the impulsive and unplanned nature of this crime, your supportive family and partner, your positive employment history, steps taken by you to cease your involvement in the abuse of alcohol and controlled drugs, your expressed remorse and continued reflection on these matters, your assessment as presenting a low risk of future offending, your young age at the time of the index offence and the undoubted engagement of the Young Persons Sentencing Guideline, and the very real prospects of your successful rehabilitation into the community on your release from the sentence to be imposed today.

In the whole circumstances, I have determined that only a significant custodial disposal is appropriate in this case, and have selected a consequent custodial tariff expressly in order to seek to address the sentencing requirements to which I have already made reference.  You will accordingly on this indictment serve a sentence of detention of 6 years and 6 months duration.  This sentence will be backdated to the date of your conviction and initial remand into custody in these proceedings, namely to 10 December 2025.

Please remember this, Mr O’Kane, as you continue to reflect on these events and this disposal.  One day you will return to your family and your ongoing future life.  Mr McLardie cannot do so.  His last days were spent bed bound, being fed by a tube, medicated for seizures and requiring the assistance of excellent care home staff for every possible aspect of his life.  The jury has held that you are responsible for Mr McLardie’s death, and that that responsibility is a criminal one. For your part, you must now bear the consequences of your criminal conduct that day, by way of the sentence now imposed upon you this morning by this court.”

23 January 2026