SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing Lord Arthurson made the following remarks:

Brandon Anthony Booth, you have today at a preliminary hearing tendered a plea in amended terms to a charge of the murder on 10 July 2025 of Mr Dylan Thomas Geddes, a 24 year old young man, in a residential property in Aberdeen.

At a ground floor flat at Coningham Terrace, Aberdeen, shortly after midnight on that date, at around 0030 hours, you launched an unprovoked attack upon Mr Geddes with a black handled knife which you had upon your person.  Having made the threats set out in the agreed narrative of facts, you lunged aggressively towards your victim, inflicting to his chest a stab wound of 4.2cm in depth, which stab wound pierced his heart.  Mr Geddes managed only a few steps on leaving the flat before he collapsed.  His friend immediately called an ambulance and rendered practical assistance to stem the flow of blood from the puncture wound which you had inflicted upon your victim’s chest.

You, however, instructed another to take and get rid of the knife, and thereafter fled the scene, passing Mr Geddes even as his friend was calling the emergency services.  You proceeded to evade the police and on 11 July 2025 entry required to be forced at another address in order to locate you.  The knife was duly recovered, also on 11 July, from a hole dug in the soil of the communal garden at Coningham Terrace.

Meanwhile, police officers who had arrived at the scene of your crime undertook CPR and used a defibrillator upon Mr Geddes.  Paramedics conveyed him to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where he was pronounced dead at 0125 hours on 10 July 2025.  A post‑mortem subsequently established the cause of death to be the single stab wound to the chest, to which reference has already been made.

Mr Geddes leaves behind a loving family and close friends.  In particular he is survived by his parents, sister and grandmother.  He was a young man with a full future life ahead of him.  You, through your act of senseless and singularly brutal instrumental violence that night, took all of that away from him and from his grieving family. I have today read a deeply moving impact statement prepared by family members. Be under no illusions, you have inflicted utter devastation upon them and in so doing have changed their lives forever.

You are aged 25.  You were indeed aged 25 when you committed this crime. You have accrued to date some 17 groups of previous convictions and served two previous custodial sentences.  Two of your convictions for crimes of violence have been on indictment at sheriff and jury level, namely in 2018 an assault and another assault with a baseball bat, and in 2020 an assault to injury while on bail and while subject to an antisocial behaviour order.

I have listened carefully to the submissions which have been advanced on your behalf today by your senior counsel, and note in particular what has been said by him regarding your background and personal circumstances, your acceptance of responsibility for this crime by way of your guilty plea and the apology publicly tendered in court on your behalf by senior counsel.

The sentence for the crime of murder is fixed by law.  It is one of imprisonment for life.  The court requires as part of the sentencing exercise in cases of this nature to select a period which is known as the punishment part of that fixed disposal.  The punishment part is the number of years which you must serve before you can be considered for release on life licence.  When the court sets such a tariff it is not in any sense appointing the time when you will be released.  Instead, the court is determining the number of years which must be served by you before you can actually apply for release.  The punishment part does not take into account the need for public protection.  That vital matter is taken into account by the Parole Board for Scotland if and when any application is made by you in due course for your release.  The punishment part does, however, take into account the twin sentencing requirements of retribution and deterrence.

In selecting an appropriate punishment part in your case, I take into account principally the gravity of the crime of murder of which you now stand convicted, together with, albeit to a much lesser degree, your criminal history of violence on indictment.  I also of course take into account the full terms of the mitigation proffered on your behalf by your senior counsel today.

The crime of murder committed by you in this case comprised an act of spontaneous but appalling and plainly targeted violence in which you struck a blow with a bladed weapon into your victim’s chest to such a depth that it pierced his heart.  This was an entirely unprovoked and wholly murderous attack upon a young man in a residential property.  You subsequently fled the scene, literally proceeding past your dying victim as he lay on the ground while his friend was calling the emergency services, and you thereafter sought to evade the police.  You even instructed another person present to dispose of the knife on your behalf.

In the whole circumstances, on charge one on the present indictment I now pass upon you the mandatory sentence of imprisonment for life.  I fix the punishment part of that disposal at a period of 18 years.  But for the timing and utility of your guilty plea, I would have selected a notional punishment part period of 20 years.  This sentence will be backdated to the date of your initial remand into custody in these proceedings, namely to 14 July 2025.

17 April 2026