SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing Lord Colbeck made the following remarks in court:

"Stephen Doohan, at a preliminary hearing on 16 May 2025,  you pled guilty to two charges arising out of assaults carried out by you.

Firstly, to assaulting and sexually assaulting your then partner by depositing misoprostol into her vagina and thus causing her to abort her unborn child to her injury, that offence being aggravated by the abuse of your then partner. Secondly, to depositing the misoprostol with the intent to cause her to abort, and to causing her to abort, that offence being similarly aggravated.

The circumstances of the offences, and the appalling consequences of them, were narrated to the court when the case last called.

You met your victim while on holiday in Ibiza. You began a long-distance relationship with her, despite the fact that you were already married. She was initially unaware of this, however, the relationship continued after you disclosed that to her. You would see each other approximately once a month. During the relationship, you told her that you did not want children.

She took a pregnancy test which revealed that she was pregnant. She told you that she was pregnant and that the child was your’s.

The same day she travelled to Edinburgh to visit you. You discussed matters with her and agreed to keep the baby and rent somewhere to live together in Edinburgh. By that time you had separated from your wife.

That evening you engaged in sexual activity with her. The lights were off and she was lying on her back. You digitally penetrated her vagina and then pulled her down to the bottom of the bed. You were kneeling on the floor when she felt the mattress being moved. She thought nothing of this at the time. She then felt something hard being inserted into her vagina. She initially assumed this was a sex toy and was not suspicious of your actions at that time.

The following day, she was out for lunch with you and felt a gush coming from her vagina. She went to the toilet to check what this was and observed what she described as a clumpy, chalky white substance on her underwear. You insisted that you see the white substance, telling her that it was vaginal discharge. She quickly dismissed this, given the texture of the substance. Soon thereafter she began to have stomach cramps and returned to your flat.

Later that evening, she took diazepam to help with the pain she was experiencing from the stomach cramps. She described being in a deep sleep and woke to find you initiating sexual contact. Again, you pulled her to the end of the bed. She felt you, again, put your hand under the mattress, before inserting your fingers into her vagina. She felt something hard enter her vagina and thereafter the mattress being lifted. She was suspicious of your actions but still felt the effects of the diazepam.

A few hours later, you got up and went to the toilet. She took the opportunity to look under the mattress, finding a plastic syringe containing crushed tablets which had been pushed to the end of the syringe. Next to the syringe were two white tablets.

Your victim then carried out an internet search for ‘abortion tablet’ which returned images that matched the tablets she had found beneath the mattress.

She confronted you over your actions. You initially denied what you had done, before admitting it, but telling her the tablets had not worked. She checked your phone and found that you had been researching the topic of abortion.

Two days later she attended the Edinburgh Royal infirmary with you due to worsening pain from her stomach cramps. You told her that you would be arrested if she told the truth and you discussed with her that she should say that she had obtained the tablets from ‘a friend of a friend’.

She did this and said she had attempted the termination herself but had since changed her mind. Before speaking to the medical staff, you rehearsed with her what she was going to say. The attending midwife recalled that she was distressed and concerned about the baby, yet you appeared quiet and expressionless.

You returned with her to your flat. She began to bleed heavily from her vagina and was in pain.

The following morning she passed out after taking a shower. She noticed that the bleeding was getting heavier and she was in a lot of pain. You travelled with her to her home.

Due to ongoing concerns, she attended the local hospital, accompanied by you and her sister. She asked her sister to ensure that you did not come into the examination room so that she could disclose the full circumstances to the medical staff. Blood samples were taken which showed decreasing levels of HCG hormone. She was told that she was having a miscarriage.

In May 2023 your victim made a complaint to your then employer, the Scottish Ambulance Service. As a result of that investigation, the police were contacted and in due course you were arrested.

The Scottish Ambulance Service investigation disclosed that the day she told you that she was pregnant, your login accessed the misoprostol drug monograph on the Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee application. This is the only time that your login has been used to access this monograph since the application had been developed approximately 3 years previously.

The monograph accessed by you provides information relating to the use of misoprostol, including reference to the presentation of the drug, possible side effects, preparation of the dose and guidance on dosage and administration.

Accused

You are 33 years of age. You have no previous convictions. You appear before this court as a first offender. A number of references have been produced on your behalf.

It is clear from those references that you have, previously, made a number of valuable contributions to the community. Nevertheless, they say little, if anything, of what caused you to act in the way you did.  

Seriousness of Offences

In determining the headline sentence I am first required to assess the seriousness of the present offences.

The seriousness of an offence is determined by two things: the culpability of the offender and the harm caused, or which might have been caused, by the offence.

Culpability

In assessing culpability, the court requires to assess the blameworthiness of the offender at the time of committing the offence.

The factors relevant to the assessment of culpability in your case are that you researched and planned what you did to your victim, using resources available to you in your role as a paramedic, before manipulating your victim and executing that plan under the guise of consensual sexual activity, abusing the position of trust you were in with her.

You intended to cause harm to your victim and did so.

Once your actions had been uncovered you persuaded your victim to lie to medical staff and left her in what can only have been considerable pain and indescribable anguish over the prospect of losing her child before she did, in fact, do so.

Harm

An offence will, generally, be regarded as more serious the greater the amount of harm caused. You have pled guilty to causing your victim to abort. In doing so, you put her through considerable pain over a number of days and have left her facing a lifetime of pain and loss. The effects of what you did to her are eloquently set out in the victim statement provided to the court. Anyone reading that statement would be moved by its terms and by the raw pain that radiates from it.

In addition to the physical pain you caused, your actions have caused clearly significant and long term psychological injury.

Taken together, the offences committed by you are, frankly, almost as serious as any this court is ever asked to sentence.

Aggravating and Mitigating Factors

I turn to consider the aggravating and mitigating factors present in this case.

As I have had regard to the planned nature of what you did, I do not treat it as an aggravating factor. I have regard to the statutory aggravation of each of the charges you pled guilty to.

In terms of mitigating factors, I recognise that you are remorseful and have not offended previously.  That, however, is of limited weight. I recognise and have regard to the fact that you have certain mental health issues, as explained in the reports that are before the court. I have regard also to the contents of the CJSWR and to all that has been said on your behalf today by Mr Stewart KC.

The fact that you are assessed as being of a low level of risk is, perhaps, unsurprising having regard to your age and lack of previous convictions. You are assessed as being of a medium risk of sexual reoffending solely on account of your age. Those assessments are, however, of little moment.

Sentence

As a first offender, you have the protection of the statutory provision which prevents a court from passing a sentence of imprisonment on a person who has not been previously sentenced to imprisonment or detention unless the court considers that no other method of dealing with him is appropriate.

The gravity of the crimes you have committed are such that there is no alternative to a lengthy prison sentence in this case.

Such a sentence is, in my assessment, necessary to punish you as a consequence of your criminal behaviour;  and to express society’s concern about and disapproval of that behaviour.

Taking all this in to account, and having regard to the principle that a sentence should be no more severe than is necessary to achieve the appropriate purposes of sentencing in each case, I have concluded that, had you been convicted after trial, I would have imposed a cumulo sentence of 14 years imprisonment in relation to the two charges you have pled guilty to.

I am, however, required to take into account your plea of guilty.

Your pleas of guilty came at a preliminary hearing. As a consequence, the headline sentence will be reduced by 3 years’ 6 months. Accordingly, the sentence of the court is one of 10 years 6 months imprisonment. That will run from today’s date.

No part of the sentence is separately attributable to the domestic abuse aggravations. The domestic abuse element of these charges is inherent in the offences themselves and the court has had regard to that in fixing the sentence imposed.

SONR

When you pled guilty, the court certified that the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 apply in your case. As a result of the sentence now imposed, you are subject to those requirements indefinitely.

PVG

As you have been convicted of a relevant offence, I am satisfied that it may be appropriate for you to be listed as unsuitable to work with both children and protected adults. The court will give any prescribed information it holds in relation to you to the Scottish Ministers. I direct that the referral be recorded in the record of proceedings.

NHO 

I am satisfied that it is appropriate to impose a non-harassment order in order to protect your victim. For an indeterminate period, you are prohibited from approaching or contacting, or attempting to approach or contact, her by any means whatsoever.