SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Arthurson told McDermid:

"Liam McDermid, on 22 October 2025 at Edinburgh High Court, you tendered a plea of guilty to a single charge section 76 indictment libelling a contravention of section 28(1) of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 in respect of your involvement in serious organised crime.

You are aged 25.  You have to date accrued 19 groups of previous convictions, two of these on indictment and two involving weapons.  It further appears from your record that you were the subject of a restriction of liberty order at the time of your offending in the present case.  You have not previously served a custodial sentence. Your record is eloquent of a continuous offending pattern across a range of criminality, including the misuse of controlled drugs, wilful fireraising, crimes of dishonesty and crimes of violence.

On the afternoon of 5 June 2025 you attended at the Roseburn Path, Edinburgh, secured possession of a metal detector there, and proceeded to search within the undergrowth at that location for a firearm and ammunition, all while engaging in communications with others regarding the whereabouts and recovery of the firearm.  In due course, on the morning of 11 June 2025, police recovered a Glock pistol with a magazine attached to the grip of the firearm containing ten rounds of 9mm Luger (Parabellum) cartridges.  You were observed undertaking this activity in the course of a police surveillance operation which was part of a wider police operation related to organised crime activity in Edinburgh.  At one point you had your face covered.  A balaclava and gloves were duly recovered, along with an iPhone and cash, when you were subsequently searched. The location at which the firearm was recovered was near to nursery and junior school buildings. I note that 5 June this year was in fact a Thursday during the school term.

A criminal justice social work report has been prepared in respect of you. You have a history of cocaine misuse. You have a supportive relationship with your partner. You appear to have suffered certain adverse childhood experiences. You have a misplaced sense of loyalty to your criminal peers. You have had certain mental health issues. You have expressed remorse for your offending in this case.

I have listened carefully to the submissions advanced in mitigation this morning by your senior counsel, and note in particular what has been by him said regarding your willingness to seek assistance from a local group, as vouched in a letter from that group; your challenging upbringing and adverse childhood experiences; your presently supportive partner; your vulnerability in a custodial setting; the utility of your early plea; and what has been narrated this morning regarding what you have described to your senior counsel as your response at the locus to obtaining a “positive hit” from the detector.

It is plain on any view that only a significant custodial disposal can be considered to be appropriate in this matter.  The public interest in suppressing and punishing such serious organised criminal activity is extremely high, particularly so when, as in this case, lethal weapons are involved.  The citizens of Edinburgh have been understandably and indeed rightly concerned by the recent upsurge in such criminality in their communities. In these exceptional circumstances there requires accordingly in my view to be some degree of exemplary component in respect of the sentence to be imposed upon you today. This offence was planned and co-ordinated, and had clear links to serious and organised criminal activities. You used a metal detector, an iPhone and a balaclava as you undertook your task. The weapon which was the subject of your search was subsequently found to be located in an area in proximity with nursery and junior school buildings, which buildings were doubtless populated on a term time school day with young children.

The maximum period available to the court by way of sentence under section 28(1) of the 2010 Act, being the statutory provision which you have been charged under, is one of 10 years.  That sets the ceiling, as it were for the sentencing exercise to be undertaken in your case. The gravity of this offence, when seen in the particular context which I have described, requires the court today to set a notional headline custodial tariff of 9 years. You made no comment at your police interview, as is of course your right, but accordingly, while you have utilised section 76 procedure to make your plea of guilty, that plea cannot, standing the whole procedural history of this case, be said to have been a particularly early one.  I accordingly restrict the discount to which you are entitled on account of the timing and undoubted utility of your plea to one quarter. You will accordingly serve on this indictment a sentence of 6 years and 9 months imprisonment.

This sentence will be backdated to the date of your plea of guilty and remand into custody in these proceedings, namely to 22 October 2025."

20 November 2025