SENTENCING STATEMENTS

A judge may decide to publish a statement after passing sentence on an offender in cases where there is particular public interest; where a case has legal significance; or where providing the reasons for the decision might assist public understanding.

Please note that statements may include graphic details of offences when it is necessary to fully explain the reasons behind a sentencing decision.

Once charges are spent, any statement in relation to them is removed and cannot be provided or acknowledged. Statements published before the launch of the website may be available on request. Please email judicialcomms@scotcourts.gov.uk.

The independence of the judiciary is essential to safeguard people’s rights under law - enabling judges to make decisions impartially based solely on evidence and law, without interference or influence from the government or politicians.

When deciding a sentence, a judge must deal with the offence that the offender has been convicted of, taking into account the unique circumstances of each particular case. The judge will carefully consider the facts that are presented to the Court by both the prosecution and by the defence.

For more information about how judges decide sentences; what sentences are available; and matters such as temporary release, see the independent Scottish Sentencing Council website .

Read more about victims of crime and sentencing.

HMA v Edward Leslie Feelie

May 27, 2025

At the High Court in Inverness Lord Arthurson sentenced Edward Feelie to 6 years and 6 months imprisonment after the offender pled guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

On sentencing Lord Arthurson made the following remarks in court:

"Mr Robert Shirra Gibb was aged 84 when he died. He resided at Coatshill, Glasgow. He had one brother and two daughters. I have read extremely powerful and harrowing impact statements prepared by each of his daughters. His brother, daughters and granddaughter were all at his hospital bedside when he died. Mr Shirra Gibb was a man of faith. He will continue to be deeply loved and profoundly missed by his family, friends and his whole community. The consequences of the criminal conduct in this case, to which I will turn in detail shortly, have been truly life changing for Mr Shirra Gibb’s family members. Their lives will simply never be the same again.

Edward Leslie Feelie, on 22 April 2025 at Glasgow High Court you pled guilty under section 76 procedure to causing the death of Mr Robert Shirra Gibb on Glasgow Road, Blantyre, in December 2023 by your dangerous driving, contrary to the Road Traffic Act 1988 section 1, and to driving a motor vehicle when the proportion of cocaine in your blood was 67 microgrammes of cocaine per litre of blood, contrary to section 5A(1)(a) and (2) of the 1988 Act. Dashcam footage of your crimes was played in court on the date of that pleading diet.

At about 1750 hours on 19 December 2023, while driving your motor lorry under the influence of the class A controlled drug, cocaine, you failed to adhere to a red traffic signal at a pedestrian crossing and you failed to observe and react to the presence of Mr Shirra Gibb who was then a pedestrian using that crossing at the locus. Your victim was struck by your lorry and propelled forward. The flatbed aspect of your vehicle then slid over him trapping him near to the front side wheel. Mr Shirra Gibb was dragged for several metres before coming to rest in a position under the lorry. Members of the public assisted Mr Shirra Gibb. You were pacing and agitated outside the lorry but climbed back in to look for your telephone, apparently unaware that your victim was under your vehicle.

The red traffic signal had been showing at the crossing for 11 seconds prior to the collision. Mr Shirra Gibb had been walking on the carriageway towards the south footpath for some 7 seconds before the collision. Your lorry did not deviate until the moment of impact. Your vehicle was recorded at 21 mph at the crossing.

Paramedics attended. Mr Shirra Gibb was alert and conscious. He was treated at the scene before being conveyed by ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where he was treated in respect of catastrophic pelvic, chest and back injuries. He had also suffered a bleed on the brain. At 1322 hours on 20 December 2023, medical staff in the hospital intensive care unit pronounced Mr Shirra Gibb’s life to be extinct.

You are now aged 54. You have to date accrued three prior criminal convictions, including convictions under the Road Traffic Act 1988 in 2010 and 2013 at JP Court level.

A clinical forensic psychology report prepared by Professor Lorraine Johnstone records your history of substance use disorder, including severe addictions to alcohol, cocaine and Valium. You told Professor Johnstone that you had been using large quantities of cocaine initially at weekends and then daily for around 10 years, including having consumed some on the morning of the criminal conduct libelled in this case. Professor Johnstone also reports your long standing history of regular cannabis use.

A criminal justice social work report is now available in respect of you. You described your regular cocaine use to the author of that report, stating that you took cocaine most days. You are reported as struggling to show empathy for your victim. Staggeringly, you reported to the author that you have used cocaine regularly over the last 10 years as a mechanism to get you ready for work and to be alert.

Your counsel has advanced cogent submissions in mitigation on your behalf this morning. In particular, I note what has been said by him regarding the lighting at the locus; your expressed remorse; your close and supportive family; your early plea; your assessment at the medium level of risk; your history of employment; and your health history.

A significant custodial disposal is of course inevitable in this case. Aggravating features arising in this case under the relevant sentencing guideline include prior convictions under the Road Traffic Act, albeit these are of some antiquity; your victim being a vulnerable road user, namely an elderly pedestrian at a crossing; and your commission of the separate offence of driving your vehicle while impaired by the consumption of a class A controlled drug. In respect of culpability, I have reached the view that this is a case which is on the very cusp of levels A and B in the guideline. There are no mitigating features in respect of the offending in terms of the guideline.

This was in short a shocking crime. You mowed down an 84 year old pedestrian at a crossing in the face of a red traffic signal, all while you were driving under the influence of cocaine, which appears to have been your regular habit for many years. You took cocaine and then drove your lorry without a second thought for the catastrophic potential consequences of such conduct for other road users. Even now you have, it is reported, notwithstanding the apology conveyed by your counsel to your victim’s family in court today, struggled to display any empathy for your victim.

As I turn now to the disposal of the court in this case, I wish to make it crystal clear that I am acutely aware in a case of this nature that any sentence which this court can impose upon you can never be remotely commensurate with the devastating loss suffered by the family of your victim.

Edward Leslie Feelie, you will on charge one on this indictment serve a sentence of 6 years and 6 months imprisonment, discounted from a period of 9 years and 6 months due to the timing and utility of your guilty plea. The court, in addition, having regard to the available material regarding your many years of driving while under the influence of cocaine and your ongoing addiction background, makes a lifetime disqualification order in your case. You will accordingly on an indefinite basis be disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence.

You will never drive again. On charge two you will be admonished and your licence will be endorsed.

These disposals will run from the date of your pleas of guilty and initial remand into custody in these proceedings, namely 22 April 2025."

27 May 2025