SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Matthews said: "You pled guilty at a preliminary hearing to a shocking attack on a 35 year old man in his own house to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement and to the danger of his life.

You also pled guilty to two charges of fraud by using his bank cards, which you had taken from him.

Your victim was unknown to you till you met him in a pub in Kilmarnock and went with him and another person to his house, where more drink was taken.

For some reason you started to act aggressively towards him and assaulted him, repeatedly punching him on the head and body. You also repeatedly slammed a door against his head with your foot pressing on his throat.

When he tried to crawl away you placed your hands round his throat, choking and strangling him to the point where he lost consciousness. When he woke up and started talking to his cat you resumed punching him repeatedly.

Later on towards morning he asked for a cigarette and you told him to stay down. He was able, though, to go to the bathroom, where he saw that he had been badly beaten and his face was covered in blood. You then forced him onto his bed and, having pulled a mirror from the wall, smashed it over him and choked him again. Not content with that you brandished a Stanley knife at him and demanded the PINs for his bank cards telling him not to lie or he would die. Despite this threat, he had the presence of mind to give you false numbers.

You appear to have left the property but then returned and demanded the keys for a car, only to be told that it belonged to a neighbour. Then you resumed your attack, demanding the PINs again, before you left and locked the door with his keys. As well as his bank cards and keys you took a bottle of whisky and the complainer’s mobile phone and wallet with you.

You were unable to withdraw money using the numbers he gave you but you made two purchases in the sums of £10.99 and £9.25 using the contactless facility.

As a result of the assaults the complainer suffered a number of injuries, which the court was told about on the last occasion you appeared. Broadly speaking these were bruises, lacerations and swelling around the face and head, eye injuries, an injury to the left ear, bruises consistent with strangulation on the neck, and bruising on the right shoulder blade, right elbow, left hip and left ankle as well as a 2cm wound on his right knee.

He also sustained a subdural haematoma and a likely fracture of his right cheek.

Luckily very little treatment was required but the force you employed could have been fatal, especially as a result of the bleed on the brain.

As it is, he still has headaches, migraines and chronic fatigue. He suffers joint and limb pain and has scarring round his eyes. He has been unable to do the work for which he trained at college and university and amongst other expenditure has had to pay for extra security to feel safe in his home – a home he is doing up so he can rent it out or sell because he cannot heal if he still has to live there.

I have listened carefully to what has been said on your behalf and taken account of the contents of the Criminal Justice Social Work report, which indulges in a certain amount of victim blaming. You suffered a number of childhood traumas and have had mental health issues. As well as that you have had a long standing unhealthy relationship with alcohol and drugs.

You have a bad record, consisting of 28 previous convictions for offences including assault, assault to injury three times, assault to severe injury twice, assault and robbery and use of knives and a metal pole as well as a number of other matters. The report goes into some detail about your criminal history and suggests that I might consider making a Risk Assessment Order with a view to a potential Order for Lifelong Restriction.

I have decided not to go down that route. While your offending history started when you were 15 in 2008 and continued until 2017, there was then a gap of five years until the current offence so you are capable of being a law abiding citizen.

All that having been said, you still pose a high risk of committing further offences and in order to protect the public from serious harm from you on your release I am going to impose on charge 1 an extended sentence which will be in two parts.

The first part, known as the custodial term, will be one of 6 years and 9 months. It would have been 9 years but for the timing of your plea. The second part, known as the extension period, will be one of 3 years. During that period you will be subject to a licence, the conditions of which will be set by or on behalf of the Scottish Ministers. If you break the terms of the licence you will be liable to be recalled to custody to serve the remaining period of the sentence.

The sentence will run from 28 February 2022 when you first appeared in court.

The sentence on the other two charges will be a cumulo one of imprisonment for 6 months to run concurrently with that on charge 1."

22 March 2023