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 Gavin Gallagher

Oct 8, 2025

At the High Court in Glasgow, Lord Mulholland sentence Gavin Gallagher to life imprisonment for the murder of Stephen Gray. The punishment part, the time which must be spent in custody before parole is considered, was set at 20 years.

On sentencing, Lord Mulholland said:

“You were convicted to the murder of Stephen Gray. You poured boiling water mixed with sugar over him. As you said yourself in evidence, this was intended to do him maximum damage. He was bare chested, and the burns caused by what you did must have been very painful. You can see that from the photographs of his injuries. You also stabbed him twice with a large kitchen knife and one of these blows penetrated his heart and caused massive bleeding which led to his death. This injury was unsurvivable.

You then did what you could to set up a defence of self-defence in an attempt to cover your tracks. You placed a knife alongside his dying body and said to a neighbour that it was the deceased’s knife. You told anyone who would listen that you killed him in self-defence. You were unable to explain the other stab wound above the deceased’s eye. Your story of throwing the boiling water mixed with sugar over the front of his naked torso as he ran upstairs, was inconsistent with the vast majority of his burns being to this back.

Your statement to the police on arrest that it was the last time you would phone an ambulance for someone, was meant to imply that you had nothing to do with Stephen Gray’s death and was a brazen lie.

If your account of the deceased coming to the door armed with a knife was true, then why did you open the locked door armed with a knife and a boiling kettle when the deceased had left the door and was making his way downstairs where he lived.

If you had nothing to hide, why did you put your hand over Kelsey McIsaac’s mouth and tell her to shut up when the police arrived.

I was not surprised that the jury rejected self-defence and provocation. It seemed to me that your defence of self-defence was staged, and your lies unravelled.

In sentencing you, I take into account the circumstances of your crime, your criminal record, the terms of the Criminal Justice Social Work Report and everything said on your behalf.

There is only one sentence that can be imposed for murder and I hereby sentence you to life imprisonment.

I am required by law to fix a punishment part. This is the portion of the sentence you must serve before being eligible to apply for parole. That is a matter for the parole board who will assess the risk you pose to the public at that time. There is no guarantee you will be released. That is a matter entirely for the parole board to determine. The punishment part will be set at 20 years’ imprisonment. I will apportion 3 months’ imprisonment to the bail, breach of an undertaking, and aggravation.

I order that the sentence should run from 6 November 2023, the date you were first ordered into custody by the court for this matter.”