SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Arthurson said:

"John Hughes, on 25 September 2024, at a preliminary hearing at Glasgow High Court, you tendered a plea of guilty to a charge of assault to severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and danger to life and attempted murder.  This matter arose out of a neighbour dispute, as in any event that was so perceived by you.  Your victim was in fact the mother of your downstairs neighbour.

Footage of this appalling crime was played in court at the hearing during which your plea was tendered.  That footage was highly disturbing.  It was indeed horrific to the point of being almost Hitchcockian.  Your crime is captured initially only in audio form by the camera, as you are out of view, then, as the sun emerges to create a shadow image, you can be seen outlined on a grass lawn holding a pickaxe with both hands over your head and then making a downwards striking motion.  The background audio throughout consists of the complainer and a child screaming in terror.

You, on 29 September 2023 at around 3.00pm at New Edinburgh Road, Uddingston, all in the presence of a 5 year old child, repeatedly struck your victim on the head and body with a pickaxe, in a wholly murderous and sustained attack during which you throughout displayed a wholly callous disregard to her injuries, the continuing screams of the child and indeed whether your victim lived or died.  After this you calmly phoned the ambulance service, stating that your victim looked like she was dying.  Notwithstanding that, you proceeded to leave the complainer moaning on the ground, and you provided her with no assistance whatsoever.  The grass lawn where she lay was soaked in her blood.  Later photographs of the weapon used by you disclose that the hair of the complainer was still on the axe.

Your victim required to be admitted to the neurosurgery department of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow.  She had sustained at least four facial wounds and two scalp wounds.  All layers of her skin had been breached, with visible bone underlying.  She sustained several skull fractures and an underlying brain bleed.  She sustained a fracture of the upper jaw, occasioning the separation of the hard palate from the upper jaw.  The fracture line was above the teeth on both the right and left sides and resulted in the tooth bearing area of the upper jaw being fractured off from the rest of the facial skeleton.  Your victim’s left sided cheek bone was also fractured, the bone being broken into several pieces.  Her lower jaw was additionally fractured on the left side at the point where it meets the upper jaw.  You additionally inflicted a wound to her thigh.  Entirely understandably, in view of the catastrophic nature of the injuries inflicted upon her by you, your victim has sustained multiple ongoing and permanent deficits in her physical functioning, along with facial scarring and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder.  She is presently awaiting further facial surgery.  A CT scan is currently proposed with a view to considering the options of prosthesis or fillers. The complainer is now conscious of her facial asymmetry. You should be under no illusions about the life‑changing nature of your murderous assault that day in respect of your victim.

You are now aged 63.  You have to date accrued four groups of previous convictions.  At sheriff and jury indictment level you were convicted in 2000 of wilful damage, and you have summary level convictions for assault from 2006 and 2013, one of the 2013 group of offences relating to a child.  The 2013 conviction was analogous in respect that it also involved a neighbour dispute.  In 2018, on a reduction to summary basis, you were convicted of assault to injury with an axe.  To date you have not been the subject of any custodial disposal.

Two reports are available to the court.  Similar themes emerge from each of these reports. The other report, received by the court only last week, is a criminal justice social work report and risk assessment.  According to the author of this report, you appear to be fixated on problems which you say your neighbours have caused you over the years and the impact that this has had on you. The author further confirms that you have expressed little remorse for your criminal behaviour in this case. According to the author you present with a medium level of offence‑related risk and need.  Notwithstanding that stated assessment, the author suggests that the court consider the imposition of an extended sentence to promote public protection and manage your risk.

I have listened with care to the submissions advanced in mitigation this morning by your senior counsel, and confirm that I propose to take all that has been said on your behalf into account in today’s sentencing exercise.  In particular, in addition to his careful and cogent submissions regarding your background ideation in this case, I note your acceptance of criminal responsibility in this matter by way of your early plea; your history of employment and home ownership; and your expressed insight into your criminal behaviour and its consequences.

The level of instrumental violence involved in the index offence was extreme.  Notwithstanding your previous use of an axe in a previous conviction for assault to injury in 2018, the present matter appears to represent a materially significant escalation in your violent criminal behaviour.  You repeatedly attacked your defenceless victim with a pickaxe, as already described, all in a residential area in broad daylight and in the presence of a 5 year old child.

In the whole circumstances it is plain that the gravity of your criminal conduct on this occasion requires the imposition of a very substantial custodial disposal.  In addition, although the risk assessor has placed your risk at what is referred to in the report as medium level, I have reached the view that, in the light of the analogous features of your criminal antecedents and indeed the footage which was played in court on the date of your guilty plea, the sentence for the index offence ought to be in the form of an extended sentence, on the basis that the normal period of licence would not be adequate to protect the public from serious harm from you when you are released from custody in due course. For the avoidance of doubt, I can tell you that I have given serious consideration to the making of a risk assessment order in respect of you, with a view to exploring the possible imposition of an order for lifelong restriction. In the light of the content of Dr Bett’s report I have however drawn back from that sentencing route and selected instead an extended sentence as the appropriate disposal in this case.

This extended sentence will be in two parts.  The first part will be custodial. The second will be an extension period when you will be under supervision while on licence in the community.  The conditions of your licence will be set by Scottish Ministers.  If during the extension period you fail to comply with your licence conditions, your licence may be revoked and you may be returned to custody for a further period in respect of this indictment.  The court also has power to deal with you if you commit a further offence after you are released from the custodial part of this sentence while you are on licence and under supervision.

You will accordingly, on charge 3 on the present indictment, serve an extended sentence of 15 years duration.  I set the headline custodial part of this disposal at a period of 14 years, which I will discount due to the timing of your plea to a period of 11 years.  The subsequent extension period will run thereafter for 4 years.  It is to be hoped that this extended period of supervision will serve both to protect the public and facilitate your successful future re‑integration into the community.

This sentence will be backdated to 2 October 2023, being the date of your initial remand into custody in these proceedings.

Finally, on unopposed Crown motion I now impose a non-harassment order in respect of the complainer. You will, on an indefinite basis, not approach or contact, nor will you attempt to approach or contact, in person or in any way whatsoever, the complainer in this case."

4 November 2024