SENTENCING STATEMENTS

***The below statement contains language and views that are extreme and offensive***

On sentencing, Sheriff Walls made the following comments in court:

“On 27 November 2025 you both pled guilty to charges on a section 76 indictment. Charges 1 and 2 relate to Shirley Craughwell. Charges 3 and 4 concern Hannah Craughwell. The Crown narrative was extensive and took over an hour to read into the court record.

You appear in court today for sentencing.

Before proceeding further, it is appropriate for me to record that section 76 procedure means that you each approached the Crown and indicated an intention to plead guilty at the earliest opportunity. You have not sought to justify your conduct by reference to freedom of expression. You have accepted that your actions were illegal. You have pleaded guilty to offences of threatening and abusive behaviour and stirring up racial hatred.

Background

Shirely Craughwell

Between 22 December 2021 and 20 June 2024, you sent messages, voice notes, images and videos which were racist, antisemitic, threatening and abusive. You also distributed racially provocative leaflets in public places. 

Charge 1 covers the period to 1 April 2024 and is under section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010. Charge 2 relates to 1 April 2024 to 20 June 2024 and is under section 4(1) of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

The level of hatred, racism and antisemitism expressed by you is deeply disturbing. You espouse right wing conspiracy theories regarding, amongst other things, white genocide and white replacement theories. You speak repeatedly of your admiration of Adolf Hitler and other Nazis. You call for another holocaust. You boast of being a hardened Nazi. You joke about your racism and state “other than me hating blacks p***s and jews I am just a normal wee woman lol.”

However, your messages were not just offensive - they are violent and threatening. In relation to people of the Jewish faith, you said, “I hate these low IQ savage c***s they need publicly hung” and “that there aren’t enough ovens in the world”. In reference to widely shared social media footage of Black Scottish hillwalkers, you say “Ah hate them, when will we start killing them CANNOT WAIT LIKE.” You suggest that the Bible commands the killing of blacks and Muslims. You posted images suggesting that white and black people are different species.

You boast about having brought your daughter up to share your twisted beliefs. Shamefully, you have directly involved an infant child in your offending, teaching them to perform Hitler salutes and posting images of this online.

In addition to the online offending, you have also distributed numerous racially offensive leaflets around your community.

These are just examples of your appalling criminal behaviour. I am told there are thousands of messages in total. In determining an appropriate sentence, I have considered the entirety of the Crown narrative.

Your culpability in relation to these offences is high. I do not accept that you were some sort of casual participant in extremism or that you fell into it by accident. The volume of messages and the period over which they were posted demonstrates a deliberate and premediated course of action on your part. This is confirmed by the fact that in addition to your on-line offences, you distributed offensive leaflets, in your own words, “mask on, hood up.”

There was a level of sophistication to your online offending as you were wary about what to post and concerned that some of your group discussions were being infiltrated by anti-racist groups. You knew what you were doing was illegal and might potentially result in the imposition of a custodial sentence. I listened to the chilling voice messages you sent to your daughter and there is no doubt in my mind as to the force of your abhorrent, threatening and abusive views.

Although there is no direct victim of these offences, I also assess harm as being high. The fact that your messages were mainly exchanged with fellow racists and extremists is not meaningful mitigation. There is no way of knowing who saw the messages and it is their content which informs the seriousness of the charge. I also take into account the sheer volume of messages.

I will deal with charges 1 and 2 together and impose a cumulo sentence. In view of the seriousness of the charges, an appropriate sentencing range is between 1 and 3 years’ imprisonment.

In terms of mitigation, you have no previous convictions and benefit from the presumption that you can only be imprisoned if there is no other way of dealing with the matter.

The Justice Social Work report is detailed, but the author concludes that you continue to minimise the seriousness of these offences and that any remorse is primarily concerned with the situation you now find yourself in.

The involvement of a child in these offences is a significant aggravation as is the period over which the offences were committed.

Hannah Craughwell

Between 2 November 2022 and 20 March 2024 you posted messages, videos and images which were racist, antisemitic, transphobic and homophobic. Charge 3 covers this period and is under section 38 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.

Charge 4 is under the section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986 and concerns distributing posters and leaflets on 25 March 2023 which were racially provocative with an intent to stir up racial hatred.

On the social media platform Gab you used the username “Hannah Hitler.” Your bio was “white f***ing power.” You posted a series of offensive and disturbing videos on Gab and Instagram glorifying Hitler and expressing your disappointment at the number of Jews killed in the Nazi holocaust. You describe Jews as “real life monsters hiding in the flesh” in a post stating that “Jews rape kids.”

You describe the then First Minister, Humza Yousaf as a “sand n***** monkey c***” and by analogy made similar comments about the former United Kingdom Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. In March 2024, on Facebook, you posted a grossly offensive image regarding cooking Jews in ovens during the holocaust. You shared numerous antisemitic videos, many of which involved Nazi imagery and ideology.

On or around 25 March 2023 you distributed highly inflammatory leaflets designed to stir up racial hatred in various public locations. You then then boasted about this using your Hannah Hitler Gab profile, the boasts being accompanied by photographs of the leaflets in public places.

As with your mother, these are just examples. I have considered the entirety of the Crown narrative.

Your culpability in relation to these offences is high. The messages you have posted speak for themselves. There can be no doubt from the material before the court as to the conscious efforts you have taken to distribute racially inflammatory material online and in your local community.

I also assess that the level of harm is high, for the same reasons as I mentioned a moment ago in relation to your mother.

I will deal with charges 3 and 4 together and impose a cumulo sentence. The range I have identified is also between 1 and 3 years’ imprisonment.

As with your mother, the Justice Social Work report suggests that you continue to minimise these offences which you characterise as “making fun” of people. There are no meaningful mitigatory factors in relation to the offences themselves. However, in terms of your personal circumstances, the report discusses ongoing issues with mental health. You also have two children who live with their father, and I have considered the impact a custodial sentence might have on them. Although you turn 28 this month, to at least some extent, I accept that you may have been influenced by your mother.

The period over which the offences in charge 3 were committed is an aggravating factor. Your previous conviction for threating and abusive behaviour directed towards a neighbour is also an aggravating factor although I attach little weight to that as you were admonished and the circumstances are not analogous.

Sentences

I have listened carefully to the pleas in mitigation from your solicitors. I have also considered the terms of the Justice Social Work reports.

It is common knowledge there has been a rise in the commission of antisemitic crimes across the United Kingdom in recent times. Issues of race and immigration are also increasingly at the forefront of legitimate political debate. People have, and are entitled to have, differing views on such matters. However, violent and racist language of the sort used by you in the commission of these offences is not an acceptable form of speech, political or otherwise. It is abusive and threatening and has a corrosive effect on public discourse. Any sentence must express public denunciation of such behaviour.

Although neither of you have served a prison sentence before, I am satisfied that there is no other appropriate way of dealing with you other than the imposition of custodial sentences.

Shirley Craughwell, I have identified 30 months imprisonment as an appropriate headline sentence.  To reflect the timing of your plea, this will be adjusted so that the sentence imposed is one of 20 months imprisonment. This will be backdated to 27 November 2025 when you were remanded in custody.

Had you been sentenced on each charge separately, the headline sentences for charges 1 and 2 would have been 30 months and 6 months respectively.

Hannah Craughwell, the appropriate headline sentence is 24 months imprisonment. To reflect the timing of your plea, this will be adjusted so that the sentence imposed is one of 16 months imprisonment.

Had you been sentenced on each charge separately, the headline sentence for charge 3 would have been 24 months. I would have dealt with charge 4 by the imposition of community payback order with a supervision requirement and an obligation to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.”

6 January 2026