SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing Lord Arthurson made the following remarks in court:

"Mr Robert Bromell was the father of two boys aged 12 and 16 when he died at 1430 hours on 7 September 2023 at The Royal Alexandria Hospital, Paisley.  Mr Bromell died as a result of catastrophic injuries which were sustained by him on 6 September 2023 when he was struck by an ambulance then engaged on an emergency call on the Corran Esplanade, Oban. Mr Bromell was aged 39 at the date of his death.

Lewis John Budge, on 21 January 2026 during the float period of a dedicated floating trial diet at Glasgow High Court you tendered a plea of guilty to what had originally been libelled as a charge of murder, thereby accepting your criminal responsibility for the culpable homicide of Mr Bromell.  You are now aged 22.  You were aged 20 when you killed Mr Bromell.

At 0132 hours on 6 September 2023 at the Corran Esplanade you pushed Mr Bromell onto the roadway and into the path of the moving ambulance, to which reference has already been made.  Mr Bromell was a complete stranger to you.  He had been in one group, and you in another, emerging from a club, and then merging with a third group, into one single group comprising some eight individuals.  All of you had been drinking, albeit you yourself were not obviously affected by drink.

As the ambulance, by now on an emergency call, with blue lights flashing but no siren, travelled along Corran Esplanade at a maximum speed of between 36 and 39 mph, which was within the Scottish Ambulance Service’s speed exemption policy for emergency responding, the positioning of a caravan meant that Mr Bromell and you could not see what was on the carriageway, nor could you be seen from the carriageway until the last moment.  As the footage played in court on the date of your plea so clearly demonstrated, however, as the ambulance approached, you deliberately pushed Mr Bromell on the top half of the front of his body using two hands.  You had given no thought to the surrounding circumstances.  The push had sufficient force to cause Mr Bromell to lose his balance.  He stumbled backwards and fell into the carriageway.  Despite an attempt by the driver to steer away from Mr Bromell, the nearside bumper of the ambulance struck Mr Bromell’s head.  The driver reacted quickly but simply had no opportunity to avoid the collision.

You proceeded to walk away from the scene.  You told a member of your group that Mr Bromell had stumbled out in front of the ambulance.  Later, with others at a flat, you stated that Mr Bromell had tripped over himself and had fallen on the carriageway in front of the ambulance.

It was only on 14 September 2023 that the recovered ambulance footage was viewed.  It clearly showed that someone, namely you, had pushed Mr Bromell in front of the ambulance.  You were subsequently identified as the perpetrator of the crime to which you have now pled guilty.

The ambulance crew involved in this collision, who had not seen you push Mr Bromell, took Mr Bromell to The Lorne and Islands Hospital in Oban.  He was subsequently transferred to The Royal Alexandria Hospital.  His injuries were unsurvivable.  Mr Bromell had sustained multiple injuries, the most significant of which were to his head.  In particular, there was a skull fracture extending across the base of the skull with a subsequent collection of blood under the dural membrane and on the surface of the brain.  Neuropathological assessment revealed axial displacement, brainstem haemorrhage and evidence of evolving global ischaemia.  He had also sustained further injuries to the chest, abdomen, and to all limbs.

You are not a first offender.  You have one previous conviction in the sheriff court  for a statutory domestic abuse offence dating from July 2021. You received on that occasion a community sentence with unpaid work.

The criminal justice social work report which has been prepared for this sentencing hearing appears to be in very positive terms indeed, placing you at a minimum level of risk of further offending.  This assessment is rather surprising, however, standing the fact that you have now been convicted of two offences of escalating gravity.  I have also considered the numerous references tendered on your behalf.  These are generally insightful and consequently of some assistance.  

I have listened with care to the cogent submissions advanced today in mitigation by your senior counsel.  In particular, I note what has been said regarding your supportive family; your positive employment history and supportive employer; your expressed remorse and your apology through your senior counsel to the family of your victim; your assessed level of risk; the lack of premeditation and relatively low level of violence employed by you in respect of the offence itself; the positive approach you have to date adopted to your time in custody on remand; and, of course ,your age and the undoubted engagement in this case of the Young Persons Sentencing Guideline.

In the whole circumstances, it is plain, however, that only a significant custodial disposal is appropriate in this case.  You deliberately pushed your victim, using both hands, onto the roadway and into the path of the oncoming ambulance.  Your subsequent conduct in walking away and putting responsibility onto Mr Bromell for what had happened, and indeed by apparently doing nothing about this matter at all until you were identified as the perpetrator some days later on the ambulance footage, are all factors which weigh unfavourably against you in this matter.  The consequent trauma occasioned to the ambulance crew, who were of course at the time engaged on their public duties in an ongoing emergency call-out, is an additional aggravating feature of this case.

Turning now to disposal, standing the gravity of the crime before the court, I now select a headline notional custodial tariff of 7 years, taking into account the whole mitigation offered on your behalf and in particular your age and the clear engagement in this case of the Young Persons Sentencing Guideline.  Having regard to the requirement to take into account the utility of your guilty plea, albeit on the eve of a trial diet, I now confirm that you will serve on charge one of this indictment a sentence of 6 years imprisonment.  For the avoidance of doubt, this disposal takes into account the short period spent by you on remand at the outset of these proceedings.  

This sentence will be backdated to the date of your recent remand into custody on the date of your plea of guilty, namely to 21 January 2026.

Finally, let me say this.  You in due course will undoubtedly complete your sentence.  You will return home to your family and friends and perhaps to a productive working and purposeful family life.  Mr Bromell, your victim in this case, will, however, do none of these things.  

Mr Bromell’s sons and indeed his whole family will be forever deprived of his rightful place and role in their lives.  In this way you should, as you embark upon this prison sentence, understand that the terrible consequences of your crime against him are generational in nature, and that no punishment I can impose upon you today could ever remedy that awful, dismal truth."

 24 February 2026