SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lady Poole said:

"Derek Gordon Lewis, you pled guilty in the High Court to serious offences of assault, threatening and abusive behaviour, sexual assault, sexual assault by penetration, and attempted rape. 

All of your offences took place on a dark evening on 20 February 2024. You preyed on a series of people in the vicinity of a university.  First, you followed a female student leaving the university library to buy food on her way home.  You grabbed her from behind, covering her mouth with your hand.  She struggled with you.  She was fortunate that a car drove past, so you ran away.  Next, you went into accommodation where students and others lived.  You entered a flat there, and took two knives from the block in the kitchen.  You left one knife on a chest of drawers in one of the bedrooms in the flat. You were spotted by females living in the flat as you passed a different bedroom door. You were found hiding in the bathroom with one of the knives.  The residents bravely removed you from the flat. Not content with those two appalling offences, you then followed another female who had left the university library after an evening of study.  You subjected her to a horrifying, prolonged and violent attack, caught on CCTV.  You tried to rape her, and committed other sexual offences against her. The only thing that stopped you was a nearby householder hearing your victim’s terror-stricken cries, and coming out to intervene. 

It appears that day you had been taking drugs and alcohol, but that is an aggravating factor and is no excuse for your disgraceful course of behaviour. 

All of your crimes were terrifying for your victims.  I have read a number of victim impact statements, which are eloquent about the serious, lasting, emotional and other harm you have caused to your victims.  What you did changed their lives.  You also caused your final victim to suffer serious physical injuries, and financial loss.  It is likely that your crimes caused consternation in the wider university community.

You are 40 years old.  You have a significant record of previous convictions.  They may all be at sheriff court level, but they show a concerning course of behaviour.  There is one with a sexual aggravation.  Domestic aggravations to other crimes suggest an offending history against women.  Another previous conviction involved a knife.  You have served a term of imprisonment for wilful fire-raising to danger of life, and sentences for a number of instances of threatening and abusive behaviour.  You were subject to community payback orders at the time of this offending. On the day of these offences you had been carrying out unpaid work imposed by a court in another case, and drinking and taking drugs before, during and after that work, to the extent that you were ultimately found unresponsive in the street after these offences. 

I have considered the criminal justice social work report that I ordered.  Some risk assessments carried out find you at a high risk of sexual reconviction and recidivism.  The assessor considered that your behaviour over the course of the night of 20 February 2024 suggested a sustained motivation and willingness to offend, and a degree of planning.

I have taken into account everything said on your behalf in mitigation.  You have a history of education at school and college level, and some employment.  I note your mental health issues.  Your long standing substance and alcohol abuse issues have caused problems in your life, so that prior to your offence you were relatively isolated and living in homeless accommodation.  You have expressed remorse for what you did.  You retain some family support.  You claim not to remember your offences, although I note this is not the first time you have made that claim following serious offending directed at a female.  Nevertheless, you have some insight into how traumatic and frightening it must have been for your victims.  An apology has been tendered to your victims on your behalf.   You have pled guilty to these offences at an early stage, meaning your victims have been spared giving evidence.  As a result, your sentence will be discounted.

Nevertheless, offences of this nature must attract a substantial custodial sentence.  I have decided to impose a cumulo extended sentence on you, which is a type of sentence that has both a custodial part and then an extension period in the community. I am imposing this sentence because the public need to be protected from serious harm from you, and the normal period of any licence would not be adequate to do that.  The total length of the sentence I impose is 10 years and 8 months.  The custodial period is 6 years and 8 months, reduced by 1/3 from 10 years because of your early guilty plea.  The extension period is 4 years.  During the extension period you will be on licence on conditions fixed by the Scottish Ministers. If you fail to comply with the conditions, the licence may be revoked and you may be returned to custody; and you may also be sentenced for an offence committed while on licence.  Your sentence will be backdated to 22 February 2024, when you were first remanded in custody. 

Had I been sentencing separately for the three offences I would have imposed custodial periods of 2 years in respect of the first offence, 4 years in respect of the second offence, and 6 years in respect of the third offence.  As they involved separate offending against different victims, and although on the same evening were committed at different times and in different places, they would have fallen to be served consecutively.  However that would have resulted in a sentence of 12 years, which would have been too high, so I reduced the total headline custodial period to 10 years.  For completeness, I would have imposed a supervised release order in relation to the first offence, as well as extension periods for the second and third offences, totalling four years. 

As a result of the sentence I have imposed, you now become subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period."