SENTENCING STATEMENTS

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Read more about victims of crime and sentencing.

HMA v Wayne Ashley Banks

Mar 5, 2020

At the High Court in Edinburgh today 5 March, 2020, Lord Uist sentenced Wayne Ashley Banks to 10 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of 14 offences involving physical and sexual violence and drugs offences.

On sentencing, Lord Uist made the following statement in court:

You were convicted by the jury of a total of 14 offences. These consisted of 10 offences of physical and sexual violence towards three women and 4 drugs offences, all committed between 1997 and 2003. The first woman was the subject of one physical assault, the second woman was the subject of one physical assault and six sexual assaults and the third woman was the subject of two sexual assaults. Four charges involved rape, three of them against the second woman and one against the third. The second and third women have been severely affected by the callous and cruel treatment to which you subjected them.

You are now 46 years old. You have one previous conviction for breach of the peace in 2000, which I shall ignore for present purposes. I am informed by the social worker who prepared a report for the court that you have continued to deny your guilt after conviction, shown no insight into your criminal behaviour and no victim empathy, only anger towards your three victims, whom you claim have lied.

You have been assessed as being at medium risk of further general offending and high risk of further sexual offending. I note your personal circumstances, particularly the fact that you sustained a serious head injury in 2007, and all that has been said on your behalf in mitigation. You must appreciate that the offences of which you were convicted require the imposition of a substantial custodial sentence.

On the common law charges of physical and sexual violence, that is to say, charges 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 taken together, the sentence which I impose is 9 years imprisonment. On charge 2, the charge under section 6 of the Criminal Law (Consolidation) Scotland Act 1995, the sentence which I impose is 5 years imprisonment, to run concurrently with the sentence of 9 years imprisonment. On each of charges 11, 12, 13 and 14 the sentence which I impose is 12 months imprisonment, these sentences to run concurrently with each other but consecutive to the sentence of nine years imprisonment on the other charges.

Accordingly, your total sentence is 10 years imprisonment. That sentence will run from 30 January 2020.

As a result of your sentence on the sexual offences you now become subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period.