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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Read more about victims of crime and sentencing.
HMA v Lewis McGuiness
Jun 2, 2023
His Lordship delivered the following sentencing statement:
“Lewis McGuiness you have been convicted after trial of 4 charges of rape, one involving one partner and the other three involving another partner. You have also been convicted of an assault to injury, a contravention of s. 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, a contravention of s. 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, and a contravention of s. 4 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009. Charges 3, 5, 6 and 7 - being the rape charges - are the most serious charges of which you have been convicted. Charge 6 also included the contravention of s. 4, and the sexual offending in that charge was particularly degrading for the complainer. Charges 5, 6 and 7 were aggravated by involving abuse of your partner.
I have regard to all that has been said on your behalf. I bear in mind that you have no previous convictions and that your health history includes times when you have engaged in self-harm and suffered from depression. The offences of which you have been convicted took place when you were a teenager aged 16 to 18, and were not a mature adult. You were 16 when you committed charge 3 and the complainer there was younger than you. You were 17 or 18 when you committed charges 5 and 6, and 18 when you committed charge 7. The complainer in those charges was also younger than you.
However, even allowing for all that has been said on your behalf there is no escaping that this was a very serious course of offending, which involved controlling behaviour and the forceful and, on occasions, violent imposition of your will on the complainers. The victim impact statements from both complainers make clear that your crimes against them have had serious and lasting consequences, and that those consequences have been especially serious for the complainer in charges 4, 5, 6 and 7. A substantial custodial sentence is required.
I shall impose a cumulo sentence for all 7 offences. Having regard to your offending and the risk assessments contained in the Criminal Justice Social Work Report, in my opinion the normal period of licence would not be adequate to protect the public - in particular future intimate female partners - from serious harm from you when you are in due course released. I will therefore impose upon you an extended sentence, which sentence will be in two parts.
The first part will be custodial. The second part will take the form of an extension period when you will be under supervision while on licence in the community. The conditions of your licence will be set by the Scottish Ministers. If you fail to comply with the conditions during the extension period your licence will be revoked and you may be returned to custody for a further period in respect of these offences. The Court also has power to deal with you if you commit a further offence after your release from the custodial part of this sentence and while you are on licence and under supervision.
In the whole circumstances I sentence you to an extended sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment. The custodial part will comprise a period of 7 years. The custodial part would have been 9 months shorter had you not been guilty of the abuse aggravations in charges 5, 6 and 7. The extension period will be 3 years. This sentence will be backdated to the date of your conviction and remand into custody, namely 12 April 2023.
You will be subject to the notification requirements contained in Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period.”
2 June 2023