SENTENCING STATEMENTS

Please be aware that this statement contains details of sexual offences.

On sentencing, Lord Harrower said: 

"Dylan Brister and Cameron Allan, by the unanimous verdict of the jury, you have been found guilty of the sexual assault, rape and murder of Calum Simpson. 

At the time of his death, on 3 November 2021, Calum Simpson was 24 years old.  He had four young children.  Just 11 days previously, his partner had given birth to the family’s newest member.  The personal statements I have received from Calum Simpson’s partner, mother and aunt bear witness to the terrible devastation you have caused to his whole family.  There are so many milestones in the children’s lives that their father will no longer be able to share for reasons that cannot adequately be explained to them.  No sentence of this court can alleviate the family’s grief and anguish.   

How it came about that Calum Simpson, a complete stranger to both of you, ended up at your flat, was not entirely clear from the evidence.  It seems that he had been socialising the previous evening with his friend, Dylan Stewart.  As it happens, Mr Stewart was also known to both of you.  You had been in contact with Mr Stewart intermittently that day about various matters.  At about half past seven in the evening, you invited Mr Stewart round to your flat.  By that stage, Mr Simpson was already in Mr Stewart’s company.  According to a text sent to Mr Stewart at 19:38, you indicated that you were intent on having a “quiet night” in.   There was nothing in the evidence to suggest that Mr Simpson would have had any reason to anticipate what was about to happen to him. 

In particular, he would not necessarily have been aware that the two of you had in fact been trying, throughout the day, to arrange a threesome for the evening.  One young man, with whom you had been negotiating on the dating app Grindr, explained that you had wanted to “tie [him] up and use [him]”.  But when you also mentioned drugs, he got cold feet and the plan fell through.  His narrow escape was Calum Simpson’s misfortune.  For shortly after Mr Simpson arrived at your flat, you drugged him, by spiking his drinks with so-called “street valium”.  Street valium contains Etizolam, a powerful sedative, which is ten times stronger than Valium and is not available under prescription in the United Kingdom.  

While he was unconscious, Mr Stewart having by this time returned to his own home, you subjected Calum Simpson to a sustained assault, in which you not only tied him up and raped him but you committed various other acts of penetrative sexual abuse using your fingers as well as what was euphemistically referred to in evidence as a “sex toy”.  The resulting injuries were described by the forensic medical examiner as full thickness lacerations that would have caused great pain to anyone who had not already been rendered unconscious by the ingestion of drugs and alcohol. 

You had made several video recordings of your activities on a mobile phone, but managed to delete them before the phone could be examined.  It would have been with a certain degree of confidence, therefore, when being interviewed by the police later that day, that you insisted that Mr Simpson had been awake, conscious and consenting throughout. You weren’t to know that one of the deleted videos, taken at 02:45, would be recovered by Police Scotland’s specialist cybercrime unit.  When that video was played to the jury, it was obvious, as it would have been to you at the time, that Mr Simpson was profoundly sedated while you were carrying out the various acts of sexual abuse for which you have been convicted.

What seems to have happened next is that, rather than seeking medical assistance for Mr Simpson, you left him lying unconscious.  When you woke up later that morning, he was cold and stiff to the touch.  You took steps to conceal your crimes.  You locked up what remained of the drugs in a safe and handed it to a neighbour. At 11:52, you phoned the emergency services but aborted the call before it could be answered.  At 11:55 you phoned Mr Stewart, who, apart from yourselves, was the last person to see Mr Simpson alive.  It wasn’t until 12:03 that you eventually alerted the emergency services.  On arrival, they confirmed what you already knew, that Calum Simpson was dead. 

You were each aware of the inherent dangers of so-called “street valium”.  You knew that Calum Simpson would have been particularly vulnerable through his own lack of tolerance and having been already under the influence of alcohol.  At trial each of you blamed the other for administering the drugs.  But it was clear from the evidence that you were jointly engaged in a plan to make sure - as you, Mr Allan, put it at the time - that Calum Simpson didn’t get up.  Whether or not you intended to kill Calum Simpson, you each revealed yourselves to be completely indifferent as to whether he lived or died.  As a result, the jury would have been entitled to conclude that you displayed such a degree of wicked recklessness that what you did amounted to murder. 

The only sentence I may lawfully impose on you for murder is a life sentence.   However, I also have to specify a period which must pass before you can apply for release on parole.  Whether you will ever be released will be for others to determine.  The period I select is known as the punishment part of the sentence, and its purpose is to satisfy the requirements of retribution and deterrence.  The parole board will deal in due course with the protection of the public.  In fixing the punishment parts of your sentences I must take into account the seriousness of the murder combined with the other offences on the indictment of which you have been convicted.

I have read the various reports in respect of each of you and considered all that has been said on your behalf in mitigation. I note in particular the troubled upbringings which each of you has had, and the mental health issues under which each of you has been labouring.  In your case, Mr Brister, since you are now 28 years old, the Scottish Sentencing Council’s guideline for the sentencing of young people does not apply.  However, I have taken account of your relative youth at the time of the offences.  In your case, Mr Allan, you were 18 at the time of the offences, and are still only 21 now.  The guideline applies.  I have taken account of your different levels of maturity and in both cases of the importance of rehabilitation as a primary consideration.  Had I not made these allowances in respect of each of you then the punishment parts about to be imposed would have been longer.

I deal first with you, Dylan Brister.  In addition to the crimes of murder, sexual assault and sexual assault by penetration, of which you were convicted by the jury, you pled guilty at the beginning of the trial to two offences of assaulting police officers in the execution of their duty.  All these crimes were committed by you while you were on bail.  You have a number of previous convictions.  These include a conviction on indictment for assault to severe injury for which you received a sentence of detention, and a conviction for the statutory offence of assaulting or impeding health workers in hospital premises.  I acknowledge that you pled guilty at the beginning of the trial to at least parts of the charge of rape and sexual assault.  In respect of charge 4, I sentence you to a term of imprisonment of 9 years.  In addition, you will be subject to the notification provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period.  In respect of charges 7 and 8, I sentence you in cumulo to a term of imprisonment of 2 years and 6 months.  In respect of charge 5, I sentence you to life imprisonment and fix the punishment part at 23 years.  All three sentences will run concurrently and are backdated to 5 November 2021, when you were first remanded in custody in respect of what is now charge 4. 

I next deal with you, Cameron Allan.  The difficulty I have with you is that, even by your own admission, you have told one lie after another.  Your story seems to change with every telling.  Even the forensic psychologist has referred in her report to the implausible, contradictory, fantastical, and self-pitying character of much of what you had to say during the course of two lengthy interviews.  I have taken account of your adverse childhood experiences insofar as these are supported by independent evidence.  I take account also of the fact that you had no record of previous convictions.  In respect of charge 4, I sentence you to a term of imprisonment of 8 years.  In addition, you will be subject to the notification provisions of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period.  In respect of charge 5, I sentence you to life imprisonment and fix the punishment part at 19 years.  Both sentences will run concurrently and are backdated to 19 July 2024 when you were remanded in custody after trial.  The two very brief periods you spent on remand prior to the trial are too insignificant to have any impact on the length of the punishment part that I have fixed."