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 Gordon Leitch
Jan 20, 2026
Judge Jackson made the following comments in court:
“On 11 November last year you pled guilty to the rape of a woman who was a former partner of yours and who had been kind enough to offer you accommodation after you had been discharged from hospital. You repaid that act of kindness by raping her in circumstances where you had effectively scared her into having sex with you. In no sense did she freely agree to intercourse on that occasion. You grabbed your victim from behind by the shoulder and threw her onto the bed before standing next to the bed, placing both of your hands around her neck. At that point, whilst she was in tears and fearful of you, she told you just to do it. You penetrated her and raped her, only stopping once you had ejaculated. I am quite satisfied that you were fully aware that you were engaged in a criminal act of rape that morning. It also appears from what you have told the psychologist that you had consumed crack cocaine prior to the commission of this offence.
As soon as this rape ended your victim ran from her home to her neighbour’s home where she was visibly upset, with her head in her hands. As a result of your actions, your victim has been left scared and traumatised. She feels fearful, anxious and finds it hard to cope. Your actions have worsened her pre-existing anxiety. Such is the impact upon her mental health that she is currently not able to work. These are the direct consequences of your actions.
The criminal justice social work report makes plain that there is a recent history of poor mental health on your part including an inpatient stay within a mental health unit. At the time of this offence, however, there is no suggestion that your thinking was in any sense altered or that you were suffering from any form of psychotic episode. That much is confirmed by the report submitted from Prof McPherson. It is also of significance that you self report your abuse of cannabis and cocaine in recent years and it is entirely probable that the abuse of those drugs has caused you to suffer from poor mental health in your later years. I notice also that you were not taking your prescribed medication at the time of this episode.
You now have a number of convictions amassed in the later years of life doubtless as a consequence of alcohol and drug abuse and its consequences. You seem to have gone from being a hard-working man with healthy family connections to somebody estranged from your two sons and now facing a lengthy prison sentence.
I have listened carefully to everything said by Mr Paterson this morning in mitigation and have carefully read the social work report and the mental health report. The CJSWR recognises that a lengthy prison sentence is inevitable in this case. The report also suggests the imposition of an extension to any such sentence. In the particular circumstances of this case, I do not consider that the necessary statutory test is met here and so I will not extend the sentence that I will impose.
Taking everything into consideration, including your degree of culpability and the harm caused by your actions, my starting point here is a prison sentence of five years. In fact, your lawyers indicated your intention to plead guilty to this charge nearly one month in advance of the proposed trial date and so I will modify the headline sentence with a reduction of six months which represents 10% of the headline figure. Accordingly, you will serve a custodial sentence of four and half years. I am mindful that you have spent a period remanded in custody at an earlier stage which I calculate to be 209 days which I will equate to 7 months. Further, you were again remanded in custody following the tendering of this plea on 11 November 2025. Accordingly, I will backdate the commencement of this sentence by 7 months to 11 April 2025 to reflect those periods of remand. For completeness then, you will serve a sentence of 4 ½ years which is backdated to 11 April 2025.
I have given consideration to the imposition of a non-harassment order. Standing the terms of the victim impact statement, your victim has been considerably affected by your actions and in the circumstances I make an order that you must not approach or contact or attempt to approach or contact in any way whatsoever the victim for an indefinite period.
Finally, your name will be placed on the register of sex offenders for an indefinite period. That is all.”
20 January 2026