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.
Follow us if you wish to receive alerts as soon as statements are published.
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 Mihai-Nicolae Patran
Nov 10, 2025
On sentencing, Judge McFadyen said
“Mihai-Nicolae Patran, although you were at the time aged 32 and apparently a first offender, you have been found guilty of three sexual offences against female strangers, committed over a period of just over five weeks in 2023, starting with sexual exposure on a train between Perth and Stirling, followed by the protracted and demeaning rape of a stranger in a public alleyway in the centre of Glasgow and finally, almost beyond belief, sexually assaulting the dock escort officer to whom you were handcuffed when you first appeared in court for the rape at Glasgow Sheriff Court.
What led you so suddenly to indulge in such a level of frankly depraved or degenerate conduct is hard to imagine. Your behaviour on each occasion was shocking, but the rape was a highly aggravated crime. It was committed against a stranger, who was doing nothing more than looking for somewhere to get some food early in the morning, just after 5am, in the centre of town. In her intoxicated and apparently confused state she took a short cut through the alley where you, it seems, were intending to bed down in a doorway and she had the misfortune to encounter you there. We do not know how it was, but somehow you persuaded her to go into the doorway and we know from the CCTV and mobile phone footage which captured a little of what happened, and certainly recorded the length of the episode, that she was subjected by you in that doorway to a protracted, demeaning and squalid rape over the next forty minutes.
She was compelled in court to relive her ordeal and repeatedly view the distressing recordings because and only because, despite her evidence and the weight of CCTV, DNA and medical evidence, not to mention the very real distress exhibited by her as soon as she got away from you, still naked from the waist downwards, you chose not to face up to your actions. As was your right, you declined to give evidence, and all we heard from you was your wholly dishonest and dismissive account to the police of what you said was nothing much – chillingly the same expression that you had used when previously interviewed about the incident on the train.
You are clearly a dangerous man and in particular a real danger to women. There is, of course, no alternative to a significant custodial sentence. You are a Romanian who has apparently no significant connection with this country, and it is to be hoped that you will be deported or otherwise removed from the country at the earliest opportunity, but I have to take into account the possibility that, for whatever reason, you are not deported and in due course you come to be released from custody and at liberty here. In that event it seems clear to me that the risk that you present is such that the period for which you would be subject to supervision on licence as part of a custodial sentence would not be sufficient for the protection of the public from serious harm and it is therefore appropriate that I pass on you an extended sentence of 12 years.
The first part of that sentence will be custodial period of nine years. That is calculated as eight years in respect of the rape, six months in respect of the sexual exposure and eighteen months in respect of the sexual assault, adjusted to an overall custodial period of nine years to reflect the totality of your offending, backdated to 28 November 2023, when you were remanded in custody. You will thereafter be subject to an extension period of three years when, if you are at liberty in this country, you will be on licence subject to conditions set by Scottish Ministers. If you breach any of these conditions you can be returned to custody.
You have already been told that you will be subject to sex offender notification requirements, and these will apply for an indefinite period.”
10 November 2025