SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing Lord Arthurson made the following remarks in court:

Please be aware the statement contains an extremely graphic description of the offences which may be distressing to read.

" "The cowardly actions of monsters.”  These are the words of one of the bereaved family members in this case.

Ian John MacLeod and Dean Ian McLeod, you have committed crimes which can be summarised as an evil and premeditated killing spree, laced with sadism and quite extreme instrumental violence, in the course of which the two of you killed and killed again, apparently simply out of bloodlust.

Each of you has this morning at a further continued preliminary hearing tendered pleas of guilty to the murders of two men at a flat in Greendykes House, 14 Greendykes Road, Edinburgh between the dates 30 October and 1 November, 2022.  You carried out a concerted and wholly murderous attack on your victims, using hammers, machetes, a Stanley knife and a blow torch. The level of force used by you was such that a hammer was left embedded in the head of one of your victims.  The extreme nature of your criminal conduct was such that you severed parts of your victims’ noses, an upper lip and ears and forced a metal nail into the orbit of the eyes of one of your victims, to the extent that these nails passed into his skull vault next to the brain. You also burned lettering with a blow torch into the forehead and chest respectively of your victims.

Your victims were Mr Derek Johnston, aged 37, and Mr Desmond Rowlings, aged 66. Mr Johnston was a loving son and brother, a good neighbour and friend who has been described as caring and compassionate and who loved nature and animals. Mr Rowlings was a loving father and partner, a hardworking man who had lived with significant back pain. Both were individuals with some vulnerabilities.

The dreadful narrative of events has just been read by the Crown.  I do not propose to rehearse the full terms of that.  I note from it the significant following elements, however.

Only weeks prior to these murders a quantity of blue plastic overshoes, white forensic suits and goggles, were acquired.  These forensic suits and blue shoe covers were found in a holdall on the living room floor at the locus, together with Stanley blades, duct tape, a saw and a box of nails.  Also found in the living room were cable ties, a saw and bloodstained blue gloves.

Each of your victims was invited in turn by you to the locus, where each was in due course murdered by you.  You left a handwritten note in the hallway of the flat, stating, very accurately as it happens, that “what we done was evil and sadistic”, and expressing in terms what appears to be regret that you had not targeted more victims.  In a pouch in your belongings the police found a piece of Mr Johnston’s ear, a piece of Mr Johnston’s flesh, a piece of Mr Rowlings’ nose and a piece of Mr Rowlings’ flesh.

The survival time of your victims has been assessed as being at least a few hours between the infliction of at least some of the head injuries and death in the case of Mr Johnston, and at least a few hours between the infliction of blunt force injury to the brain and death in the case of Mr Rowlings.  Whether either was conscious during these time periods appears to be unknown. No evidence was found that the blow torch burn injuries occurred during life.  In respect of Mr Johnston, the hammer was embedded in the skull and the nails were driven into the eyes after death, and the tip of his nose and left ear were removed after death.  Pathological examination was unable to provide a timescale in respect of Mr Rowlings’ injuries.  Mr Johnston was found to have at least 28 separate injuries to the head, neck and upper and lower limbs.  Mr Rowlings was found to have 136 distinct injuries to the head, neck, front and back torso and upper and lower limbs.  Several of these comprised groups of injuries, however, so the total number of injuries sustained by him will in fact have been considerably greater.  Blood and hair from one of your victims was found on footwear worn by you in the kitchen.  The charnel house nature of the locus was such that walls and even the ceiling were extensively and heavily bloodstained.

Ian John MacLeod, you are now aged 66.  You have a criminal record which discloses three prior custodial disposals.  Only one is of any note, namely your conviction in the High Court in 2009 for the crime of assault to severe injury, permanent disfigurement and danger to life, in respect of which you received an extended sentence comprising a 6 year custodial part with a 2 year extension.

Dean Ian McLeod, you are now aged 42.  You have served seven prior custodial sentences. All but one of your previous convictions has been at summary level.  Some of your offending has related to weapons, namely a knife and a hammer. In the hammer matter your case proceeded on a sheriff and jury indictment.

I have listened with particular care to the submissions advanced in mitigation on behalf of each of you by your respective senior counsel, and propose to take all of the points made by them into account in determining the final disposal of this indictment.  In particular I note Ian John MacLeod the lengthy gaps in your offending record; your ongoing history of significant ill health, including progressive Parkinson’s disease; and what has been submitted regarding the utility of your pleas today. In your case Dean Ian MacLeod I note the background to and the utility of your pleas today; a possible diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder in respect of you and your mental health history generally.

The sentence for the crime of murder is fixed by law and is one of imprisonment for life.  The court requires as part of the sentencing exercise in such cases to select a period known as the punishment part of that settled disposal.  The punishment part is the number of years which you must serve before you can be considered for release on life licence.  You must understand that when the court sets this tariff it is not in any sense appointing the time when you will be released.  Instead, the court is fixing the number of years which must be served by you before you can actually apply for release.  The punishment part does not take into account the need for public protection.  That vital matter is taken into account by the Parole Board for Scotland if and when any application is made by you in due course for release.  The punishment part does, however, take into account the sentencing requirements of retribution and deterrence.  In fixing the punishment part for each of you I require therefore to reflect the need to punish you for your crimes of murder and to deter others from committing that crime.

In selecting appropriate punishment parts for each of you I take principally into account the sheer gravity of the crimes of murder committed by you in this case, and indeed the whole circumstances surrounding these crimes, which I have already attempted to summarise, together with, quantum valeat, your respective criminal antecedents.  The offending by each of you in this case is offending of exceptional gravity.  This is on any view one of the worst cases of murder ever to come before the High Court of Justiciary.  It contains in my assessment the following seriously aggravating features.  You each committed two murders. Your offending was planned and premeditated in its nature. You armed yourselves with a whole variety of weapons.  You invited or lured your victims sequentially to the locus. The violence was extreme, sustained and prolonged, demonstrating exceptional brutality and sadism. Your victims, who were vulnerable individuals, had done you no harm whatsoever. You have displayed no empathy or remorse to even the smallest extent in respect of your victims and their familes. Finally, I note the elements of degrading violence inflicted to the bodies of your victims, whether or not they were alive or dead at the time, namely the severing of body parts, some retained by you almost as trophies of what you had done, the forcing of nails through the eyes, and the burning of lettering onto the victims in what can reasonably be inferred to be some sort of branding exercise.  Your appalling crimes demonstrate on your part an immense capacity for wickedness, depravity and sadism.  Your conduct in this case was indeed the cowardly action of monsters, a killing frenzy which can be characterised as recreational murder, in which you killed and tormented your victims for no reason other than bloodlust and your own pleasure.

Turning finally now to disposal, in respect of both charges three and four, taken together and in cumulo, I now pass upon each of you a sentence of imprisonment for life.  I propose to make no distinction between you in terms of determining the punishment part of these life sentences.

On the quite exceptional facts of this case I have decided to set a notional headline punishment part of 36 years.  Taking into account, as I require to, the utility of your pleas of guilty at this late but still pre‑trial stage, I now fix the actual punishment part of your life sentences at 34 years.

Ian John MacLeod, your sentence will be backdated to 4 November 2022, and Dean Ian MacLeod, your sentence will be backdated to 7 November 2022, these being the dates of your respective remands into custody in these proceedings.

Before adjourning the court I would add the following.  In the course of this case police officers, pathologists, forensic scientists and senior Crown and senior defence counsel and their teams have undoubtedly required to examine truly horrific scenes, images and related material.  They have all had to see things that they cannot un-see, as it were.  Speaking for myself, I wish to note this and thereby formally acknowledge their dedicated service to the criminal justice system and the people of Scotland.

8 April 2024