SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing Judge McCallum KC made the following remarks in court:

"Darren McMullen, on 24 April 2025 at a diet of trial in this court, you pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting Joseph Whelan by repeatedly striking him on the head and body with a knife to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life.

In terms of the agreed narrative that was read to this court, on 27 October 2023, after a physical altercation had broken out between your victim Joseph Whelan and another man, you chose to involve yourself in that altercation; and you chose repeatedly to strike Joseph Whelan on the head and body with a knife that was in your possession.

Your assault on your victim Joseph Whelan left him with a skull fracture and a small bleed on his brain; both of which were potentially life-threatening.

Your assault on him also caused a laceration to his skull; and wounds to his right hand, wrist and forearm.

He required surgical intervention as a result of your assault on him.

He has been left with permanent scarring; and permanent impairment to his right wrist and hand; and is only likely to make a partial recovery from those particular injuries.

I have had regard to the terms of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report and associated Risk Assessment that is now available; and to the Victim Impact Statement prepared on behalf of your victim Joseph Whelan; and I have listened very carefully to all that has been said on your behalf by your solicitor advocate.

I note that it is very properly accepted on your behalf that a custodial sentence is inevitable in this case.

It was submitted on your behalf that you yourself have suffered trauma as the victim of a serious assault with a knife that has adversely affected you; and that informs why you chose to act in the manner in which you did on this occasion.

It has been submitted that you have taken steps whilst on remand to address those trauma and related anger management issues; and also to address your issues with the misuse of alcohol and controlled drugs through your completion of a number of courses; and that your progress in prison has seen you entrusted with a passkeeper job.

I note you have a reasonable employment history at periods in the past; and that a previous employer has indicated their willingness to re-employ you.

I am told that you have a supportive partner and extended family who wish to support you in your stated desire to rehabilitate yourself and avoid further such offending; and I am told that you are a supportive father who wishes to set a good example to his children going forward.

It has been pointed out that your previous history of offending has all been at summary level.

It has been submitted that you would welcome and benefit from a period of post-release supervision.

I take all of these matters; and everything else that was said on your behalf, into account.

You are now 33 years of age.

You have a significant number of previous convictions for various types of offending; and for failing to comply with various types of court orders.

You have a conviction from 29 October 2018 for an analogous offence of assault to injury; in respect of which you were sentenced to a Community Payback Order and Restriction of Liberty Order as a direct alternative to custody.

You have in fact been sentenced to a number of Community Payback Orders over the years that have included a Supervision Requirement; but such Supervision does not appear to have deterred you from further offending.

You have also been sentenced to a number periods of imprisonment over the years; the lengthiest period being a cumulo sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment imposed on 26 January 2011.

The present offence represents a significant escalation in the level and seriousness of your offending.

In regards to your assertion that you suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as is confirmed at page 5 of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report, you have never received any such formal diagnosis; and there has been a history of lack of engagement by you with available psychiatric or psychological services in the past.

As is noted in the conclusion section at page 8 of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report, you have sought to minimise your own responsibility for your own actions in regards to the commission of the present offence.

Furthermore, despite the explanations provided by you as to how this offence came to be committed, what cannot be ignored is that you had voluntarily armed yourself with a knife and took that knife to the locus where you then proceeded to use it repeatedly to assault your victim to his severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life.

If, as you claim, you yourself have been the victim of a serious knife assault in the past, that, in my assessment, makes your own commission of this very serious knife assault all the more reprehensible and culpable.

The Victim Impact Statement prepared on behalf of your victim Joseph Whelan details a number of significant physical and psychological effects that he has suffered as a result of your assault upon him,

In this case, I assess both the level of your culpability and the level of the harm that you caused as both being high.

I am satisfied that a significant period of imprisonment is the only appropriate disposal in this case.

In my view, the sentencing objectives of punishment, deterrence and public protection outweigh any other sentencing objectives in this case.

Furthermore, having regard to the nature and seriousness of the present offence; your lengthy history of previous offending; your history of failure to comply with court orders; the fact that previous periods of Supervision have failed to deter you from further offending; and the terms of the Risk Assessment contained within the Criminal Justice Social Work Report, I am also satisfied that the normal post-release supervision arrangements are not adequate in your case to protect the public from serious harm by you; and that the requirements of s. 210A(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 are met in your case; so that I should impose an Extended Sentence in terms of s. 210A of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995.

In all the circumstances, in respect of Charge 1 on the indictment, I impose an Extended Sentence of 7 years comprising a Custodial Element of 5 years and 4 months; and an Extension Period thereafter of 1 year and 8 months.

That sentence will date from 22 January 2024 when you were remanded into custody for the second occasion in respect of this case.

The Custodial Element of the sentence that I have imposed has been modified from a headline Custodial Element of 6 years to reflect the fact that you pleaded guilty at the trial diet; and also to take into account the first period that you spent on remand in relation to this case between 1 November 2023 and 10 November 2023.

When you were initially granted bail in respect of this case on 10 November 2023, that was subject to a curfew condition with Electronic Monitoring. On 22 January 2024, you appeared in court on a fresh petition alleging a breach of your bail conditions in relation to this case; and were remanded in custody.

The period between 10 November 2023 and 21 January 2024, the latter date being the last day that you were subject to Electronic Monitoring before being remanded in custody on 22 January 2024, amounts to a total of 72 days.

Therefore, in terms of s. 210ZA of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995, I direct that the period of 36 days of the sentence that I have imposed today is to be treated as having already been served.

That is all."

20 May 2025