SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Judge Young KC said:

"The jury found you guilty of four charges of rape.

Three of these were on a previous partner. One of these took place on multiple occasions. The last two were single incidents. This was against a domestic background of threats and aggressive behaviour. Your former partner gave evidence that during your time together you would simply demand sex regardless of whether she consented. If she refused, it was to no effect. At times you would shout and pull her out of the bed. She had no alternative but to allow it to happen. You would insist on sex immediately after you had been verbally abusing her. She would be still and unresponsive, but that made no difference to you.

There was also a charge of choking your former partner until she lost consciousness. A guest in a neighbouring hotel room summoned help.

The remaining rape charge was of a virtual stranger. You entered her home on a pretext and forced her to have oral sex against her will.

There were also less serious charges involving the latter victim and the police.

Previous Convictions

None of your previous convictions led to a custodial sentence. However, you do have a history of domestic offending and of breaching court orders, including bail.

CJSWR

The Justice Social Work report notes that you continue to deny a significant part of many of the offences. This includes the sexual aspects. This is not conducive to rehabilitative work.

The author refers to a traumatic event during your childhood. It further records your mental health in the past and present, including suicide attempts.

Risk

The author of the report carried out risk assessments. You scored differently on three different models. You were at moderate risk of imminent sexual re-offending using one model.

However, you were assessed as being of high risk of further offending using other models.

Mitigation

Your counsel made reference to matters raised in the report, that I take into account. These include your work history, your support for family members, and your mental health.

Extended Sentence

On the rape charges, I would have followed the advice of the author of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report and imposed an extended sentence.

Extension

I am satisfied that an extension period is necessary because the ordinary conditions of licence would not be adequate for the purposes of protecting the public from serious harm from you on your release from prison.

This takes into account the fact that your victims were very different. In addition, one of your rape offences against one victim was on a single occasion, whereas offences against the other took place repeatedly over a long period.

During the extension period you will be subject to a licence on conditions set by the Scottish ministers. If you breach the conditions you may be recalled to serve out your sentence in custody as well as being sentence for any other offences.

Individual Sentences

The charges I would have imposed would have been as follows:

For the first of the rape charges on your partner, number 5, I would have imposed an extended sentence, of which the custodial part would have been six and a half years. Six months of the custodial part would be for the aggravation.

For the remaining rape charges on your partner, numbers 7 and 9, I would have imposed an extended sentence with a custodial part of five and a half years. Six months would be for the aggravation.

These charges would have been concurrent, so the total would be six and a half years.

For the assault charge 10 on your partner I would have imposed 4 years. Six months would be for the aggravation. This would have been consecutive to the rape charges.

For charge 11, the rape charge on the second complainer, who was effectively a stranger, and which took place in her home, once in her living room, and once on her bed, I would also have imposed an extended sentence of which the custodial part would have been six years. This would have been consecutive to the charges above.

For the abusive behaviour in charge 12, I would have imposed 24 months if you had not offered a plea. However, I would have reduced this to 22 months for the plea offered at the start of the trial. This would have been concurrent with charge 11.

I would have imposed 8 months for the threatening behaviour towards the police in charge 14. I would not have discounted this for the plea, due to the gravity of the matters in this charge to which you did not plead. In view of this, I would have admonished on the bail breach charge 13.

Cumulo Sentence

The total of the sentences would therefore have been a custodial period of 17 years and 2 months, followed by an extension period. I consider that this would be an excessive sentence.

I will therefore impose instead a single cumulo sentence of 12 and a half years, comprising a custodial part of nine and a half years and an extension period of three years.

Backdate

This will be backdated to take account of the time you have spent on remand on this matter.

You were remanded from 19 April 2024 to 14 August 2024 on this matter. You then served a six month sentence from 14 August 2024 to 14 February 2025. That period of six months falls to be deducted from the backdate period. That leaves a period of 127 days on remand. I therefore backdate your sentence by this amount to a notional date of 22 October 2024.

Non Harrassment Orders

Finally, I will make an order that you do not by any means directly or indirectly contact or attempt to contact the first complainer, including by social media. This restriction will apply indefinitely.

Sex Offences Registration

Your sex offender registration is set by law, but I understand that it will be indefinite as a result of the sentences that I have imposed.