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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HMA v RF

May 23, 2024

On 6 March 2024 at the High Court of Justiciary at Edinburgh RF was convicted of an assault to severe injury, a contravention of section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, and four contraventions of section 90 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. On 23 May 2024 at the High Court of Justiciary at Edinburgh Lord Doherty sentenced him to a cumulo sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment for the contraventions of section 90 and to a further cumulo extended sentence of 9 years’ imprisonment for the assault to severe injury and the contravention of section 1 made up of a custodial term of 7 years and an extension period of 2 years.

Lord Doherty delivered the following sentencing statement:

“RF you have been convicted of 6 charges.

I have regard to all that has been said on your behalf and to the contents of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report including the risk assessments within that report.

I shall sentence you first for the 4 contraventions of section 90 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. Each of these was committed on the same date when the police attended at your home, apprehended you and conveyed you to the police station. I shall impose a cumulo sentence in respect of them. In doing so I have regard to your conduct during those offences, to the fact that you were drunk at the time, and to the fact that you have 2 previous convictions for analogous offences. The sentence for these offences is 12 months’ imprisonment which will be backdated to 27 June 2022, the date that you were remanded in custody.

I turn now to the more serious charges. Charge 2 was an assault to severe injury which took place on 11 November 2019. It involved you punching the complainer causing her to fall and to sustain fractured ribs. It was aggravated by involving abuse of your partner. The contravention of section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 involved a course of abusive behaviour towards the complainer for just over a year between 5 June 2021 and 16 June 2022. The behaviour was seriously abusive and controlling. It included holding a cut throat razor to her neck and threatening to cut her throat and brandishing a broken umbrella spoke and threatening to stab her with it. You used physical violence towards her, and you abused her sexually on 2 occasions.

In arriving at the appropriate sentence for these 2 charges I also take account of your record of previous convictions which includes a conviction for assault to severe injury and danger of life in 2002, a conviction for assault to injury in 2010, a conviction for wilful fireraising in 2019, and convictions in 2008 and 2019 for having a weapon in a public place.

I shall impose a cumulo sentence for these two offences. I am satisfied that the period for which you would otherwise have been on licence would not be adequate to protect the public from serious harm from you when you are eventually released from this sentence. For that reason, I am going to pass on you an extended sentence of 9 years’ imprisonment which is in two parts. The first part of the sentence is a custodial term of 7 years’ imprisonment to be served immediately after the sentence of 12 months I have just imposed for the contraventions of section 90 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. In other words, the extended sentence is consecutive to the 12 month sentence. 6 months of the custodial term of 7 years is attributable to the domestic abuse aggravation in charge 2. But that custodial term of 7 years is not the end of the extended sentence.

The second part of the extended sentence will be served in the community. From the date of your release, you will be under licence for an extension period of 2 years. The conditions of your licence will be fixed by the Scottish Ministers. If, during this extension period, you fail to comply with the conditions of your licence, it may be revoked; and you may be returned to custody for a further period in respect of this case. The court also has power to deal with you if you commit another offence after your release and while you are on licence.

The court shall also make a non-harassment order in terms of section 234A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 prohibiting you from approaching, contacting or communicating with the complainer indefinitely – on standard conditions.

You are subject to the notification requirements of Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period.”

23 May 2024