SENTENCING STATEMENTS
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When deciding a sentence, a judge must deal with the offence that the offender has been convicted of, taking into account the unique circumstances of each particular case. The judge will carefully consider the facts that are presented to the Court by both the prosecution and by the defence.
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HMA v Lee Ibbotson
Nov 9, 2020
On sentencing, Lord Arthurson made the following statement in court:
“Lee Ibbotson, on 9 October 2020, at the High Court in Edinburgh you were convicted on an indictment containing a single charge of rape. On 7 July 2017 at a flat occupied by you and others you raped a young woman. Your victim had accompanied you and your friends back to the flat after your group had encountered her on a night out in Edinburgh city centre. She was in effect accordingly a stranger to you. Knowing very well what a highly vulnerable condition she was in through intoxication by alcohol you proceeded nonetheless to have intercourse with her. Your sexual assault upon her in these circumstances was predatory and disgraceful, and you will pay the price for that today.
You have no previous convictions. You have had a troubled and challenging home background, but an apparently stable and solid employment history. At the time of the present offence you were taking anabolic steroids and had consumed alcohol. You have been assessed as presenting a moderate risk of general reconviction but a high risk of reconviction for sexual offences. The author of the background report upon you advises that you have coped well with your present remand. In addition, I have listened with care to the helpful submissions which have been advanced by your counsel this morning on your behalf in mitigation, and propose to take all of that material into account in selecting an appropriate disposal in your case.
That said, you will of course appreciate that for a grave sexual offence of this nature no sentence other than a substantial custodial one will be appropriate. Turning to disposal, in the whole circumstances I now therefore sentence you as follows. You will serve on this indictment a period of 5 years imprisonment. This period will be backdated to 9 October 2020, being the date of your initial remand in this case.
Finally, as a result of this sentence, you will henceforth be subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period.”
9 November 2020