SENTENCING STATEMENTS

Please be aware this sentencing statement includes details of the sexual abuse of children

On sentencing Lord Young made the following remarks in court:

"Robert Foulkes,  you have pled guilty to three charges each involving extremely serious sexual offending against young girls. The offending involved the worst breach of trust imaginable. Each of your victims was under age 12 at the time of the abuse. Your offending spanned a period of 12 years.

"In these sentencing remarks, I shall provide only an overview of the sexual offending without setting out precisely what you did to your victims. The report to the parole board will include that detail.  You sexually abused one child on multiple occasions over a 4 year period when she was between the ages of 8 and 12. A second child was abused on two occasions, once when aged 8 or 9 and once when aged 12, while a third child was sexually abused on about 4 occasions between the ages of 8 and 12.

"Each of your victims was subjected to penile penetration of their mouths or vagina. You also touched them intimately and got them to touch you. You showed two of them pornographic videos and, on one occasion, you videoed your own abusive act on a child. The terms of the CJSWR report before me indicates that you have a flexible sense of remorse in that you downplay your offending and have limited appreciation of the harm you have caused.

"I have read victim impact statements from two of your victims. These must have been very difficult statements for them to compose. In their statements, each explains how the abuse which they suffered at your hands have affected their physical and mental health, education and personal relationships. I do not usually repeat in open court the words of victims but – given your own attempt to downplay the harm caused to your victims-  I think that you should hear one sentence from one of those statements. Near the end of that statement one of your victims writes “I’m left drowned in sadness, unable to overcome what I have faced”. 

"I take into account what Mr Shand has said on your behalf. You are currently aged 65 and have some health issues. You have no relevant previous convictions so you are effectively a first offender. In truth, there is precious little that can be said in mitigation. Perhaps the most which can be said in your favour is that you elected to plead guilty which spared your victims having to give evidence in court. I shall take that into account. However, there are two factors which act to limit the reduction in sentence which might otherwise be expected where a guilty plea is tendered to a section 76 indictment. In the first place, there was a significant time gap of around 14 months between your first appearance on petition and the ultimate s76 letter. Accordingly, this guilty plea was not tendered at the very earliest opportunity. Secondly, where the offending requires a very lengthy custodial sentence, the reduction should be subject to similar limitations as apply in cases involving life sentences.

"Turning first to the type of sentence. I have decided that the nature of the offending and the terms of the CJSWR indicate that you are likely to present an unacceptable risk to young girls on your release from imprisonment unless some additional post-release supervision is put in place. As such, I am going to impose an extended sentence on you. That sentence is in two parts. The first part of the sentence is the period of imprisonment. The second part is the extension part when you will be on licence and under supervision in the community. You need to understand that when you are serving the extended period in the community, you will be subject to licence conditions fixed by the Scottish Ministers. If during the 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 indictment.

"Turning now to the length of the extended sentence. I require to set out what the headline sentences would be on each individual charge before explaining what the overall period of imprisonment will be taking into account your plea of guilty. If I was sentencing you separately on each charge, and ignoring at the moment your pleas of guilty, you would have been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on charge 1; 7 years imprisonment on charge 2; and 8 years imprisonment on charge 3. The total of these headline sentences is 25 years which, having regard to the totality principle, would be an excessive sentence even for this very serious offending.

"Accordingly, rather than impose individual sentences for each charge, I propose to deal with this by a single cumulo sentence. I consider that an appropriate cumulo headline sentence for all three charges would be one of 18 years imprisonment. Taking account of your plea of guilty, I consider that the appropriate custodial period is 15 years. Allowing for your age and likely health condition if you come to be released from custody, I consider that an extension period of 3 years is appropriate. Accordingly, I sentence you to an extended sentence of 18 years comprising a custodial period of 15 years and an extension period of 3 years.

"The sentence is backdated to 13 September 2024 when you were first remanded in custody.

"As a result of your conviction, you are subject to the notification requirements in the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Given the sentence just imposed, you are subject to those notification requirements under Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period.

"I also impose non-harassment orders on you.  I am satisfied that it is appropriate that non-harassment orders are imposed to provide additional protection and peace of mind for each of your victims. I therefore make orders in the terms proposed by the Crown and in relation to each of the complainers identified in charges 1-3. These will be for an indefinite period.”

 22 October 2024