SENTENCING STATEMENTS

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HMA v Gary Yuill

Mar 21, 2024

At the High Court in Edinburgh today, Lady Wise imposed and extended sentence of 16 years on Gary Yuill after the offender was convicted of multiple charges including rape, sexual assault and domestic abuse. Yuill will serve 12 years in prison with a further 4 years on licence in the community. He has also been issued with non-harrassment orders, added to the sex offenders register and included on the list of people unsuitable to work with vulnerable groups.

On sentencing, Lady Wise told Yuill:

“You have been convicted of 21 charges, involving the physical assault, sexual assault, rape and domestic abuse of four former partners spanning a period of 17 years. Each of the four women gave evidence of a strikingly similar pattern of behaviour on your part that resulted in non-consensual sexual activity. Several of the offences of which you have been convicted involved vaginal and anal rape.

On many occasions, often when you had been drinking alcohol to excess, you forced your victims to have sexual intercourse with you by violence or under threat of violence. I will not rehearse the details of the unrelenting catalogue of abuse you perpetrated on these women.

Your repeated controlling, aggressive, verbally abusive and violent behaviour during the course of a series of domestic relationships left your victims fearful and submissive.

In addition, your last victim was subjected to a particularly frightening episode in which you entered her home uninvited and in breach of bail conditions, when she awoke to find you standing over her.

All four women were to some extent vulnerable and fell prey to your persistent attention, only to find that once in a relationship they were coerced into unwanted sexual activity.

I have read a victim impact statement from one of the women which illustrates very clearly the long lasting impact your behaviour has had on her.

You denied nearly every aspect of all of the offences when you gave evidence, maintaining that all sexual intercourse was consensual.

I have read the criminal justice social work report that has been prepared and I note that you continue to deny responsibility for your offending and to some extent you seek to lay the blame for what has happened on your victims. Your lack of remorse and apparent anger towards some of your victims gives rise to a real concern about how you view women.

The author of the criminal justice social work report suggests you hold misogynistic attitudes towards your intimate partners. You pose a significant risk of causing serious harm in any future relationships. It is telling that your conviction for domestic assault of one of your partners in 2010 did nothing to deter you from further offending. I accept, on the other hand, that your criminal record is otherwise very limited.

I have considered carefully everything that Ms McTaggart has said on your behalf today, in particular that you have been in employment all of your adult life and that you continue to have the support of your family, including your children

I acknowledge also that you were a young man in your early twenties at the beginning of this lengthy course of conduct but by the time of the behaviour involving your most recent victim you were over 40 years old. You are now 45 and have not previously served a custodial sentence; you were on bail until that was revoked by me following conviction.

However, the nature and number of the offences of which you have now been convicted leaves me in no doubt that there is no alternative to a significant custodial sentence, which I deem necessary to fulfil the relevant sentencing purposes of marking the seriousness of your appalling behaviour and society’s disapproval of it and as punishment.

Further, I have come to the view that, in light of the circumstances to which I have already referred and following the recommendation of the criminal justice social worker, the criteria for an extended sentence are met in your case.

In essence that means that the normal period of licence would not be adequate to protect the public, and women in particular, from serious harm from you when you are in due course released. So the sentence I will impose will be in two parts, a custodial element and an extension period after your release from custody, during which you will be subject to a licence, the conditions of which will be set by Scottish Ministers. Breach of any of these conditions will make you liable to be recalled to serve out the whole of your sentence in custody and you may also be sentenced for any offence committed while on licence.

I now sentence you to a total extended sentence in respect of all charges of which you have been convicted of 16 years, comprising a custodial part of 12 years, of which 6 months is attributable to the breach of bail, and an extension period of 4 years. I will backdate the custodial part of your sentence to 26 February 2024 when I remanded you in custody.

The Crown have moved for non-harassment orders in respect of all four complainers and I am satisfied that it is appropriate to grant these. Accordingly, I make such an order, specifically that you shall not by any means, either directly or indirectly including by electronic means or through social media, contact or attempt to contact the four complainers identified. This order will subsist for an indefinite period.

As I told you when you were convicted, as a result of your convictions for certain sexual offences and now in light of the sentence I have imposed you are subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period and your name has been added to the list of persons deemed unsuitable to work with vulnerable groups.”

21.03.24