SENTENCING STATEMENTS

A judge may decide to publish a statement after passing sentence on an offender in cases where there is particular public interest; where a case has legal significance; or where providing the reasons for the decision might assist public understanding.

Please note that statements may include graphic details of offences when it is necessary to fully explain the reasons behind a sentencing decision.

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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 Logan Doig

Jul 11, 2023

At the High Court in Glasgow, Lord Clark imposed an extended sentence of 12 years and 6 months on Logan Doig after the offender was convicted of 12 separate offences,including raping four young women, two of them on several occasions. The custodial part of that sentence will be 9 years and six months with a three year extension period.

On sentencing Lord Clark made the following remarks in court:

“Logan Doig, you were convicted of 12 separate offences, committed by you over a period of some five and a half years.

The convictions included raping four young women, two of them on several occasions. Some of the rapes caused injury.

The other offences involved sexual assaults, of three of the young women who had been raped by you and of another young woman. There was also a non-sexual assault of one of them.

Several of the offences were found by the jury to be aggravated in terms of the law on abuse.

You were aged between 15 and 21 at the dates of these offences.

I have therefore given careful consideration to the guideline on Sentencing Young People. That guideline explains that your age at the time of the offences should result in the sentence being lower than that for an older person committing the same offences.

I note that, as is made clear in the Criminal Justice Social Work report, you have not accepted that you committed any of the sexual offences. Indeed you have blamed the female victims, saying they made false allegations.

You have only accepted responsibility for the non-sexual assault, in charge 21, which you have described as a childish and immature thing for you to have done.

So, there is not a great deal of information before the court to support the view that your culpability (that is your blame) for the offences was materially affected by your age at the time. But given that the offending started when you were 15, and what has been said on your behalf by Mr Gilmartin this morning, your age and some degree of immaturity are factors I take into account.

It is also not clear, given your denial of committing the sexual offences and what is said about that in the Criminal Justice Social Work report, how rehabilitation of you will be able to take place, but I trust that you will engage in offence focussed intervention and rehabilitative work.

I have had regard to all of the other points in the Criminal Justice Social Work report. I have also taken into account everything said on your behalf this morning by Mr Gilmartin, including that you will engage in interventions and programmes to assist you when in prison and to progress with rehabilitation.

You have no previous convictions and I take that into account.

But these are serious crimes committed against a number of young women, and, having regard to the victim impact statements, this kind of conduct can have a long-term impact on them. I hope that the closure of this case will assist these young women.

In the whole circumstances, this is the outcome.

You will remain subject to the notification requirements, applicable to sex offenders, indefinitely.

Turning to the sentence, the author of the Criminal Justice Social Work report comments upon your risk of re-offending and I accept that assessment.

Notwithstanding what was said by Mr Gilmartin, I am of the view that an extended sentence is appropriate. In view of the type of offences for which you have been convicted and the repeated pattern of them, with some of them aggravated by abusive behaviour, and your lack of remorse or empathy for your victims, I conclude that you present the level of risk to the safety of women that makes an extended sentence necessary for the protection of the public.

On all of the charges taken together I impose an extended sentence of 12 years and six months. The custodial part of that sentence will be 9 years and six months. Six months of that custodial part is attributed to the aggravations.

But that period of 9 years and six months in custody is not the end of your sentence.

The second part of your sentence will be served in the community.

Following your release there will be an extension period of 3 years during which you will be subject to certain conditions set by the Scottish Ministers. Breach of those conditions or the commission of further offences may see you sent back to prison to complete the remainder of your sentence.

I will backdate the sentence to 12 June 2023 when you were first remanded in custody.”

10 July 2023