SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Arthurson said: 

"On 1 November 2024, at Glasgow High Court, on the first full day of your trial, a considerable body of footage evidence having been led by the Crown, a plea of guilty was tendered on your behalf by your senior counsel to charge 3 on the present indictment, a charge libelling the crime of murder.  On 4 November 2024 an agreed narrative of the facts was read by the Crown and the diet was adjourned for sentence until this morning pending the preparation of a criminal justice social work report.  That report is now available, together with other documentation to which I shall refer in due course.

On 18 May 2023, at some time around or after 7.45pm, on the tramway at Constitution Street, Edinburgh, you, with your face masked, assaulted Danielle Davidson and repeatedly stabbed her on the head and body with a knife, and you thereby murdered her.  The knife in question has been described by your own senior counsel as a very large knife with holes in the blade, which weapon could be described as a Rambo or Zombie knife.  You were wearing a black balaclava. You were that evening engaged in the supply of controlled drugs.  You were intoxicated at the time due to your own consumption of cannabis and pregabalin.

In the course of an altercation with weapons involving another male, relating apparently to your scooter, in which Ms Davidson offered you no threat whatsoever, you repeatedly stabbed her in the back.  You inflicted five sharp force injuries upon her, and then fled the scene.

Police and paramedics were contacted by numerous witnesses.  Ms Davidson went into cardiac arrest shortly after paramedics arrived.  She was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where, after receiving attempted medical intervention, she was deemed to have sustained non‑survivable injuries. Ms Davidson was pronounced dead at 8.50pm.

The injuries inflicted upon Ms Davidson by you comprised four stab wounds and one incised wound.  One stab wound was present on the top of her head, which showed injury to the underlying skull but involved no skull fracture or penetration.  The incised wound and the other three stab wounds were present on the back of the deceased.  The fatal stab wound was that sustained to the upper back.  That wound, which measured some 13.7cm in depth, penetrated Ms Davidson’s shoulder blade before passing through the third left rib into the chest cavity, thereby puncturing the left lung.

Having fled Constitution Street, you entered a female toilet in a supermarket in Duke Street, and emerged a few minutes later having changed your clothing.  You made your way to an address in Argyle Street and called your aunt and uncle, asking that they collect you.  Your aunt, commendably, advised the police of this arrangement.  You were in due course stopped in their car and arrested by police officers on Saughton Street.

You are now aged 17.  You had turned 16 less than one month prior to your commission of this crime.  The background report which is now available sets out in detail your past offending history, albeit no schedule of previous convictions was tendered by the Crown following your plea of guilty.  When you were aged 11, in 2019, you were charged with possession of a knife.  You have subsequently been charged with vandalism, reset, theft by shoplifting, possession of drugs, wilful fire raising and, in January 2023, assault to severe injury and robbery involving the use by you of a weapon. These matters all appear to have been devolved, as it were, to the Children’s Reporter.  Since being remanded into secure care on 22 May 2023, three further offences, including offences of assault and assault to injury, have been remitted to the Children’s Hearing for disposal.

Substantial mitigation has been offered on your behalf this morning by your senior counsel.  Documentation made available from the Home Office records that it has been accepted by the Home Office that you were a victim of modern slavery in the UK during the approximate period from February 2019 to December 2022.  This relates to what is described in the criminal justice social work report as forced criminality.  In short, it has been recognised that you were entrenched in drug dealing and criminality as a direct consequence of the exploitation which you had experienced.  In addition, I note your background of adverse childhood experiences, all as referred to in that report.  On 10 May 2023, just a week prior to your commission of this murder, you were made the subject of a Compulsory Supervision Order at a Children’s Hearing.  This order was renewed on 7 May 2024.  Your senior counsel has additionally advanced submissions in mitigation regarding your perception that your victim had somehow set you up to have violence inflicted on you by the other person involved in the confrontation who was himself wielding a knife; your young age, now and particularly so at the time of this offence, which your senior counsel has rightly identified as the key mitigatory factor in your case; your background of ADHD; the ongoing support which you have received from your grandmother and father; and the training opportunities in custody which you have been offered and which you have taken up.

The sentence for persons under the age of 18 for the crime of murder is fixed by law and is one of detention without limit of time.  The court requires as part of the sentencing exercise in cases such as this to select a period which is known as the punishment part of that fixed disposal.  The punishment part is the number of years which you must serve before you can be considered for release on life licence.  Please understand that when the court sets such a tariff it is not in any sense appointing the time when you will be released.  Instead, the court is fixing the number of years which must be served by you before you can actually apply for release.  The punishment part does not take into account the need for public protection.  That very important matter is taken into account by the Parole Board for Scotland if and when any application is made by you in due course for your release.  The punishment part does, however, take into account the sentencing requirements of retribution and deterrence.

In selecting an appropriate punishment part in your case I take into account principally the very considerable gravity of the crime of murder libelled in charge 3 on this indictment, together with all of the information which has been made available to me in respect of your whole personal circumstances, in particular all of the matters set out in the criminal justice social work report, including your lengthy history of involvement with the office of the Children’s Reporter.  This was an appalling and cowardly attack perpetrated by you with a large Rambo or Zombie knife upon a vulnerable and defenceless young mother in a public street in Edinburgh in broad daylight on a May evening in full public view of many witnesses.  You were masked and armed.  You were intoxicated by way of a combination of drugs.  You were out that evening dealing in controlled drugs.  You, having inflicted devastating wounds upon your victim, sought to escape, leaving her dying on the roadway, and actively changed your clothing in a supermarket toilet.

Ms Davidson, your victim in this case was, simply and tragically, in the wrong place at the wrong time, namely in proximity to you while you were intoxicated by drugs and armed with a large and lethal bladed weapon.  Ms Davidson was aged 33.  She leaves behind her father and her 8 year old child.  You should be under no illusions about the catastrophic impact of your crime upon this bereaved family.

The extreme gravity of and harm caused by your criminal conduct in this case requires, of course, to be balanced with the information I have received concerning your adverse childhood circumstances, your status during a period prior to this offence as a victim of modern slavery, together with your age now and at the time of the offence.

I now turn finally to disposal. On charge 3 on this indictment I pass a sentence of detention without limit of time.  In the whole circumstances the punishment part of that mandatory disposal is set at a period of 18 years.  This sentence will be backdated to the date of your initial remand into custody in these proceedings, namely 22 May 2023."