SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Harrower said: 

"Euan Adams, on 26 November 2024, on the second day of the float period of a dedicated floating trial diet, you pled guilty to six charges involving the serious assault and abuse of two of your former partners, whom I will refer to as A and B. 

So far as complainer A is concerned, the charges to which you have pled guilty are: charge 1, behaving, between 1 November 2017 and 14 August 2018, in a threatening or abusive manner contrary to s38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010; charge 2, assaulting A to her injury, on various occasions between 21 November 2017 and 13 August 2018; and charge 3, assaulting A on 14 August 2018 to her injury and danger of life.  All three charges are aggravated by reason of their involving the abuse of a partner or ex-partner. 

So far as complainer B is concerned, the charges to which you have pled guilty are: charge 5, engaging, between 14 May 2020 and 28 February 2022, in a course of abusive behaviour towards your partner, contrary to s1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018; charge 6, assaulting B on 13 January 2019 to her injury and danger of life; and charge 7, on various occasions between 1 July 2020 and 5 October 2020, assaulting B to her injury and permanent disfigurement.  Charges 5 and 6 are aggravated by reason of their having been committed while on bail.  Charges 6 and 7 are aggravated by reason of their involving the abuse of a partner or ex-partner.

Your relationship with A began in 2017.  Previously, you had been living in a hostel and had an injury to your leg.  She took pity on you and invited you to stay with her and her three young children.  The relationship quickly became abusive.  You would refer to her in demeaning and derogatory terms.  You took advantage of her generosity, repeatedly demanding money from her in order to buy drugs, and on occasion stealing some of her personal items, such as jewellery.  In one incident, when she refused to hand over her bank card, you hit her in the face, and stamped on her as she lay on the floor.  As a result she sustained bruising and was in pain for several weeks.  The incident which brought the relationship to an end occurred on 14 August 2018.  When she refused to give in to your demands for money, you placed your hands around her neck, compressing it to such an extent that she found it difficult to breathe.  Only by hitting you with an object did she manage to get you to release your grip.  But even then you chased her into the kitchen, where you picked up a knife with which you threatened to harm both A and yourself.  I have received a victim impact statement from complainer A.  It is clear that your offending has had a lasting and debilitating effect on her psychological well-being, her self-confidence and on her relationships.

Your relationship with B began in November 2018.  Once again you moved in with her at her home address.  However, following an incident that same month, you were arrested and charged with assaulting one of her friends to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.  Having been released on bail in connection with that matter, there was then an incident on 13 January 2019, in which you assaulted B by placing your hands, and then your leg, around her neck, compressing it to such an extent that she felt she felt unable to breathe.  She sustained bruising as a result.  The following day your bail was revoked and in April 2019, you were sentenced in connection with the assault to B’s friend to a period of 32 months’ imprisonment, and given a supervised release order for 12 months.  Upon your release from prison on 14 May 2020, you resumed your relationship with B, during which you engaged in a course of abusive behaviour towards her, uttering derogatory remarks and behaving in an aggressive manner.  In July 2020 you slapped B’s face during an argument.  Later that month, during an argument about money, you struck her with a mug, lacerating her head.  The next day, you asked B, Which would she rather have: an injury to her face or to her fingers?  Believing this to be only a light-hearted discussion, she placed her hand flat on a desk, at which point, you began stabbing the gaps between her fingers.  When you hit her pinkie, you continued to press down on the blade, even while B was screaming at you to stop.  When she felt you reaching the bone, you said, “Oops”.  The resulting injury had to be closed with glue at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary but she has been left with a permanent scar.  The docket to the present indictment referred to a further serious incident on 6 October 2020, when you punched B, causing her to lose 6 teeth.  You were convicted for this assault on 29 November 2021, and sentenced on 10 January 2022 to 32 months’ imprisonment with a 12 month supervised release order.  It wasn’t until February 2022 that B ended her relationship with you. 

Euan Adams, you are now 34 years old.  You have offended on a prolific basis since the age of 18.  You have nine previous convictions for assault.  5 of these were at solemn level, 4 involved causing severe injury and/or permanent disfigurement, and 2 were aggravated by reason of their involving abuse of a partner or former partner.  You are currently serving a sentence of 32 months’ imprisonment imposed on 14 December 2023 in relation to a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.  On that date you were also ordered to be returned to prison in connection with the sentence imposed on 10 January 2022, and ordered to serve a period of imprisonment of 180 days.  The 32 months’ prison sentence was ordered   to commence only after the expiry of that 180-day period. 

It is clear from the terms of the social worker’s report that you take little responsibility for your offences, preferring to blame your former partners.  Indeed, despite the terms of your plea, and the agreed narrative, the social worker reports that you deny choking your victims, or threatening them with a knife.   She has assessed you as presenting with a maximum risk of re-offending.  I am satisfied that the level of your culpability in relation to these offences is high, as is the degree of harm caused to both victims.  In order to achieve the sentencing purposes of punishment, deterrence, and public protection, a lengthy custodial sentence is necessary, followed by a further lengthy period of supervision in the community. 

I have had regard to everything said on your behalf by Mr Lenehan.  I have taken account of the fact that you have already served a sentence of imprisonment in respect of the charge of assaulting complainer B on 6 October 2020.  That assault took place during your relationship with B, and more particularly, during the period in which the course of behaviour, that is the foundation for charge 5, took place.  I cannot speculate on what sentence might have been imposed, had you been prosecuted and sentenced in respect of that October 2020 assault together with the current charges.  However, I am persuaded that some modification is required to the sentence I am imposing for reasons of fairness and proportionality overall.  The extent of this modification will be explained in what follows.  

In relation to charge 1, I will impose a sentence of imprisonment of 9 months, 3 months of which are attributable to the domestic aggravation.  This sentence is reduced from 10 months to take account of the timing of your plea. 

In relation to charge 5, I will impose a sentence of imprisonment of 9 months, 3 months of which are attributable to the bail aggravation.  This sentence is reduced from 10 months to take account of the timing of your plea. 

In relation to charges 2, 3, 6 and 7, in cumulo, I will impose an extended sentence.  That sentence will be in two parts, a custodial part and an extension period.   The custodial part will be 64 months, reduced from 72 months to take account of the timing of your plea.  6 months will be attributed to the domestic aggravations, and 6 months to the bail aggravation.  But for the modification to which I have previously referred, the custodial part would have been 72 months, reduced from 80 months to take account of the timing of your plea.  The extension period will be 3 years.  During that period, you will be subject to licence conditions to be set by or on behalf of the Scottish Ministers.  If you break the terms of your licence you will be liable to be recalled to custody to serve the remainder of your sentence.   

All sentences will be served concurrently with one another, and they will be backdated to 14 April 2024, which is 10 months prior to today’s date.  I have chosen this date in order to give you credit for the period you have already spent on remand in relation to the present matters.  I am referring to the period of just over 10 months between 9 February 2023 when you appeared on petition in relation to the present matters and 14 December 2023, when you were returned to prison to serve a period of imprisonment of 180 days and thereafter the sentence of imprisonment imposed in relation to the charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.  I understand that you are due to be released in connection with this latter sentence on 19 March 2025.  There will therefore be a short period between today and 19 March 2025 in which your imprisonment might be regarded as attributable both to the 2023 sentence and the sentences I am imposing today.  However, that is in your favour.

Finally, I will impose non-harassment orders, such that, for an indefinite period, you may not approach or contact, or attempt to approach or contact, either complainer, whether directly or indirectly. 

Had I not been imposing a single cumulo sentence in respect of charges 2, 3, 6 and 7, I would have approached sentencing in relation to all charges in the following way.

In relation of charge 1, I would have imposed a sentence of imprisonment of 9 months, 3 months of which are attributable to the domestic aggravation.  This sentence would have been reduced from 10 months to take account of the timing of your plea.  

In relation to charges 2 and 3, in cumulo, I would have imposed a sentence of imprisonment of 32 months, 3 months of which would have been attributable to the domestic aggravations.  This sentence would have been reduced from 36 months to take account of the timing of your plea.  It would have been served concurrently with the sentence imposed in respect of charge 1.

In relation to charge 5, I would have imposed a sentence of imprisonment of 9 months, 3 months of which would be attributable to the bail aggravation.  This sentence would be reduced from 10 months to take account of the timing of your plea.  It would have been consecutive to the sentences imposed in respect of charges 1, 2 and 3. 

In relation to charges 6 and 7, in cumulo, I would have imposed a sentence of imprisonment of 32 months, 3 months of which would have been attributable to the domestic aggravations, and 6 months to the bail aggravation.  This sentence would have been reduced from 36 months to take account of the timing of your plea.  But for the modification to which I have previously referred, the sentence would have been 40 months, reduced from 44 months to take account of the timing of your plea.  In addition I would have imposed a supervised release order of 12 months.  The sentence in relation to charges 6 and 7 would have been served concurrently with the sentence imposed in respect of charge 5 and consecutive to the sentences imposed in respect of charges 1, 2 and 3."