SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Judge McCallum told Shankly:

"Barry Allan Shankly, on 28 June 2024 at this court, the jury by a majority convicted you of an offence of engaging in a course of abusive behaviour towards your partner or ex-partner contrary to s. 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

By their verdict, the jury decided that you behaved in a course of coercive, controlling, abusive, intimidating and violent behaviour towards your victim over a period between 19 September 2019 and 31 May 2021.

That course of coercive, controlling, abusive, intimidating and violent behaviour included behaving aggressively towards your victim, shouting and swearing at her, calling her foul, abusive and demeaning names, monitoring her use of her phone and her use of social media; and complaining about her contact with other people, arguing that she should concentrate her attention on your relationship. It also involved taking at least partially successful steps to alienate her from her friends and family. All that conduct is reflected in paragraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) of the indictment.

That course of coercive, controlling, abusive, intimidating and violent behaviour also included behaving violently towards her in your home in late October 2020 when you accused her of lying, dragged her from a bed, pushed her, demanded that she leave your house, punched her twice in the face, dragged her down a flight of stairs, stopped her from leaving your house, seized her by the throat and threatened to kill her. This behaviour all resulted in injury to her and is reflected in paragraph (v) of the indictment.

That course of coercive, controlling, abusive, intimidating and violent behaviour also included two instances of behaving violently towards her when you and she were on holiday in Lisbon, Portugal in January 2020. Those incidents involved you seizing her by the clothing, pulling her to the ground, threatening to damage her passport, stopping her from leaving your AirBnB accommodation, struggling with her, trying to take her suitcase from her, repeatedly pushing her on the body and causing her to fall and strike her head, seizing her mobile phone from her and smashing and stamping on it. Your violent behaviour on these two occasions resulted in not insignificant injury to your victim that was shown in photographs led in evidence and agreed in the joint minute of agreement.

Your violent behaviour on these two occasions in Lisbon is reflected in paragraph (x) of the indictment.

Most seriously, that course of coercive, controlling, abusive, intimidating and violent behaviour then extended to an incident in your house in the very early hours of 1 January 2021 when, on your victim’s evidence, she having rebuffed your attempt to kiss her and telling you that your relationship was not like that anymore, you pushed her on the shoulders from behind, causing her to fall over a bannister to the stairs below, breaking her spine in the process.

The injuries that she suffered, and the consequences that she will have to live with as a result of your actions on I January 2021, were and are appallingly serious.

You have rendered her paraplegic with lifelong disability and a multitude of ongoing medical conditions as a consequence of the injuries that she sustained. I wish to preserve your victim’s dignity, and I will not give you the satisfaction of going through what you have done to her; but I will report to the Parole Board for Scotland, and elsewhere if needs be, on the physical and mental effects of your actions upon your victim.

Your victim was in her mid-thirties when you did that to her. She had been an adventurous, free spirit who had travelled extensively and worked abroad, making friends from many different places in the process.

You have, in effect, sentenced her to a life in a wheelchair.

The jury decided that your violent actions on that day resulted in severe injury, permanent impairment and danger to your victim’s life.

Your conduct in relation to that day is reflected in paragraph (xi) of the indictment.

Even then, you could not leave your victim alone. You continued to pester or harass her with unwanted communication and gifts in the months in 2021 whilst she was hospitalised as a result of your actions on 1 January 2021, even after she had told you that the relationship was over and she wanted no further contact with you.

Your conduct in that regard is reflected in paragraph (xii) of the indictment.

In the immediate aftermath of your appalling actions on 1 January 2021, your victim had no memory herself of what had happened and how she had come to fall over the bannister.

You fed her a false account that suggested that she had fallen over the bannister by accident with no involvement on your part.

You fed that same false narrative to her mother and sister.

I am entitled to infer that part of your actions in continuing to make unwanted contact with your victim when she was in hospital was to attempt to ensure that she continued to believe your false narrative as to how she had fallen over the bannister; and thus to evade detection of your own  responsibility for that dreadful act.

It was only after your victim’s own memory of the events of 1 January 2021 had returned at a later stage that she made a complaint to the police in relation to you regarding the events of 1 January 2021.

One of the saddest and most troubling aspects of this case was that it was clear from certain messages between your victim and her sister led in evidence that she blamed herself for the predicament that she found herself in during her relationship with you; and for your actions towards her.

She was in no way to blame for your abusive behaviour towards her. That she felt that she should blame herself is eloquent of your coercion and manipulation of her.

You and you alone bear sole responsibility for what you did to her.

Your victim will have to live with the consequences of your actions towards her for the rest of her life.

Your own evidence was punctuated with attempts by you to shift the blame for your behaviour onto your victim. You sought to portray yourself as the victim of a number of incidents, particularly the violent behaviour libelled in paragraphs (v) and (x) of the indictment.

It is clear that the jury, by their verdict, saw through those attempts and rejected your efforts to portray yourself as a victim; just as, by their verdict, the jury rejected your account that your victim herself was responsible for falling over the bannister on 1 January 2021.

From all that I heard during the trial, and from the terms of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report, I have formed the clear view that you are a jealous, deceitful, controlling and manipulative individual with an inability to control his temper and a clear propensity to commit acts of significant violence.

You have shown little, if indeed any, remorse for what you have done; and have displayed little, if indeed any, insight into your offending behaviour or its consequences.

I have considered the terms of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report and Risk Assessment now available.

In that Criminal Justice Social Work Report, you re-iterated your denials of any significant wrongdoing on your part; and, just as you did in your evidence, you again sought to portray yourself as the victim of abusive behaviour at the hands of the real victim in this case.

The Criminal Justice Social Work Report simply confirms your lack of remorse and your lack of any insight into your offending behaviour; and, due to that lack of remorse and insight on your part, the Report highlights the risk that you will pose to any other woman who finds herself in an intimate relationship with you in the future.

I have also had regard to three extremely lengthy and moving Victim Impact Statements prepared by your victim. Whilst they set out in great detail the myriad impacts of your actions upon her, I scarcely needed to have them or to read them. The consequences of your actions towards your victim speak for themselves and were all too obvious when your victim gave evidence.

I have listened to all that your counsel has said on your behalf.

You are now 45 years of age. You have little criminal record of note; and what record you do have is of considerable antiquity. You have never previously been sentenced to a period of detention or imprisonment.

Your counsel has acknowledged that the only possible disposal in this case is a significant custodial sentence.

He was right to do so.

Such is the gravity of your offending in this case, that the sentencing objectives of punishment, deterrence and public protection outweigh any other sentencing objectives.

I assess the level of your culpability as being extremely high in this case; particularly in relation to the events of 1 January 2021 and, indeed, your conduct thereafter in continuing to contact your hospitalised victim. As I have said, I can reasonably infer that at least part of your intention in doing so was to protect the false narrative that you had fed her; and to further your attempts to avoid detection for what you had done to her on 1 January 2021.

The level of harm that you have caused to your victim could scarcely be higher in regards to a victim that survived as your victim did.

Furthermore, having regard to the evidence that I heard in this case as to your persistent and escalating abusive behaviour that culminated in devastating results for your victim; and given the terms of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report available to me that, as I have said, highlights the concerning lack of remorse or insight on your part in regards to your offending behaviour,  I am also satisfied that the normal post release licence or parole provisions are not sufficient to protect the public, and in particular females who may be in an intimate relationship with you, from the risk of serious harm presented by you; so that I should impose upon you an Extended Sentence in terms of s. 210A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.

In terms of s. 210A (5) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, I cannot impose an Extended Sentence that, in its aggregate between the Custodial and Extension elements of the sentence, exceeds the statutory maximum sentence available for the offence in question.

In the present case, the statutory maximum custodial term for an offence under s.1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 is a term of 14 years’ imprisonment.

However, as stated by the then Lord Justice General Cullen at paragraph 15 of the Court’s Opinion in the case of McGowan v HMA 2005 SCCR 497, the Custodial element of an Extended Sentence that I have identified as the appropriate custodial term should not be varied or reduced by virtue of the fact that I have decided that an Extension Period is also required.

In a case such as this, that means that I am restricted as to the length of the Extension period that I would otherwise have imposed.

Having regard to all the circumstances, I impose an Extended Sentence in terms of s. 210A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 of 14 years; with a Custodial Element of 13 years and an Extension Period thereafter of 1 year.

That sentence will date from 27 June 2024 when I first revoked your bail order and remanded you into custody.

In addition, I am quite satisfied that I should make a Non Harassment Order in terms of s. 234 AZA of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 whereby you are prohibited from contacting, attempting to contact, approaching or attempting to approach in any way or by any means your victim. That Order will be for an Indefinite Period.

That is all.”

25 July 2024