SENTENCING STATEMENTS
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HMA v Martin Wilson
Oct 12, 2026
Upon sentencing, Lord Arthurson made the following remarks:
"Martin Wilson, at a continued preliminary hearing at Glasgow High Court this morning you have tendered a plea of guilty to a charge of assault to severe injury and danger to life and attempted murder. The relevant events have all been captured on camera footage, which footage has been played in court this morning.
"On the early afternoon of 25 August 2025, at the Cowgate, Edinburgh you punched your victim, who lived a transient lifestyle and was unknown to you, to the head, causing him to fall and his head to strike the ground. Thereafter, while he was lying motionless on the ground, you kicked him eight times with force to the head.
"An attending first responder detected a response level on the Glasgow Coma Scale of 3. The complainer was hypoxic and intubated. Such was the level of danger to his life, that he was taken directly to the resuscitation unit at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. He required to undergo an emergency sight‑saving procedure to reduce intracranial pressure. He had sustained fracturing of the nasal bones; a displaced left orbital floor fracture; an undisplaced fracture of the anterior wall of the right maxillary sinus; and a bilateral lung consolidation consistent with aspiration pneumonia. He was transferred to ITU and then to a ward, from which he self‑discharged and thereafter disengaged from medical follow‑up appointments.
"You are aged 42 and have to date accrued multiple convictions in England, up to and including Crown Court level. Your criminal history contains convictions for possession of bladed weapons and for assault to injury. You have served to date some six custodial sentences.
"I have listened with care to the submissions advanced in mitigation on your behalf by your counsel this morning, and note in particular what has been said regarding your early acceptance of criminal responsibility in this matter, notwithstanding the formal tendering of your plea at today’s continued preliminary hearing; your itinerant lifestyle and an explanation of the background related to the queue in which you were standing at the time of these events; certain adverse childhood experiences in your upbringing; and, finally, the apology tendered by you in court this morning to the complainer through your counsel.
"It is plain, of course, on any view, that only a substantial custodial disposal is appropriate in this case. Your criminal conduct in this matter is about as close to the crime of murder that one could possibly contemplate. You kicked your vulnerable victim repeatedly and forcefully to the head, and the footage clearly shows you targeting his head, all while he lay unconscious, unable to defend himself in any way, on the ground. The recorded GCS response level of 3 is extraordinarily low. But for the emergency procedure undertaken and medical treatment administered by doctors, your victim would in all likelihood have died. He was indeed expected by medical staff to succumb to his injuries. His disengagement from medical follow‑up means that the full picture in terms of medical sequelae in respect of your unprovoked and murderous attack upon him is unknown. Finally, I note that the complainer was a complete stranger to you, and indeed that you are by no means a first offender, having accrued several convictions in England at Crown Court level.
"In these circumstances, I now sentence you on charge 1 on this indictment to a period of 8 years imprisonment, reduced from a period of 10 years due to the timing and relative utility of your plea, having regard to the multiple preliminary hearings which have been required to reach this point. This sentence will be backdated to the date of your initial remand into custody in these proceedings, namely 27 August 2025."
12 October 2026