SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Lord Arthurson told Lewsley

"Calum Lewsley, on 20 January 2026 you tendered a plea of guilty to a single charge section 76 indictment which libelled the crime of rape contrary to section 1 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009.

You are presently aged 31.  You have accrued to date some 14 groups of previous convictions, four being on indictment at sheriff and jury level for offences including wilful fire‑raising, assault to injury and assault and attempted robbery with a knife. 

In October 2023 you were convicted of sexually assaulting a child. 

You were then, on that matter, in April 2025, made the subject of a community payback order and made subject to the appropriate sex offender notification requirements.  You were accordingly subject to that community order at the time of the index offence, along with another separate community payback order, imposed in August 2022. 

In addition, from my reading of your criminal record, you appear to have, at the time of the index offence, been the subject of a post‑custodial supervised release order in respect of a sentence imposed in February 2025. 

You have served custodial sentences of 14 months, 27 months and 24 months in respect of three of your previous indictment level convictions.

The crime to which you have pled guilty on the present indictment is a deeply concerning one.  You raped an 18-year-old young woman who was at the time a detained patient at Stobhill Hospital.  She has learning difficulties and the mental age of a young child.  She was at the time the subject of a welfare guardianship order.  She was a complete stranger to you.  She was highly vulnerable. 

On 6 May 2025 at 9pm your victim had left her open ward to go for a walk.  She was reported missing to the police at 10pm.

Whilst sitting on a bench in Kirkintilloch, you approached her.  On your own account, you had spent the day drinking and smoking cannabis.  Your victim told you that she was a missing person.  You suggested that she go with you to your house so that you could charge your phone and then telephone the police regarding her whereabouts.  On entering your property, however, you told her to go to your bedroom.  You proceeded thereafter to rape her, all as outlined in some detail in the agreed narrative of facts.  The rape went on for one hour. 

In due course you telephoned the police.  You described your victim as vulnerable and stated that she was a missing person from Stobhill Hospital.  At around 2am on 7 May 2025, you and your victim flagged down a passing police vehicle.  You left the area. 

I have listened carefully to the submissions advanced in mitigation this morning by your senior counsel, and note in particular what has been said by him regarding your own significant medical and health issues, notably the syndrome referred to in the two psychiatric reports tendered on your behalf, and the potential correlation between that syndrome and offending; the fact that you did yourself contact the police; and the timing and utility of your early plea.

The crime before the court, despite the lack of libelled aggravations in the charge, can properly be located at or towards the highest end of the scale in terms of its gravity and depravity.  Your behaviour was both predatory and opportunistic. You raped an 18-year-old young woman who was entirely unknown to you.  She was a highly vulnerable detained hospital patient with learning difficulties, who was at the time, as you well knew, a missing person. 

The rape itself was sustained and, notwithstanding the lack of libelled aggravation, resulted in internal injury to your victim.  You were at the time the subject of various court imposed community supervision orders.  In the now available background report you are assessed as presenting a high risk of further offending, with one risk assessment tool placing you at a very high risk level.  The author of the risk assessment reports that you exhibited a reduced capacity for empathy in respect of the victims of your offending, with limited recognition of victim harm.

In the whole circumstances you on any view present a clear risk of serious harm to the public.  You have, concerningly, a history of rejection of supervision.  The question for the court today is whether to impose upon you an extended sentence or to make a risk assessment order with a view to considering whether an order for lifelong restriction is appropriate in your case.  With considerable hesitation I have decided to draw back from the latter course.  I do so because you have by your early plea accepted your criminal responsibility in this matter; you have not previously been in the High Court, nor have you been made the subject of a high tariff extended sentence; and, finally, I note that the author of the present risk assessment makes no recommendation or suggestion in respect of pursuing the risk assessment order route.

On the basis of the whole material available, namely the agreed factual narrative, your criminal history and the background and risk assessment report, I have no difficulty whatsoever in concluding that the normal period of licence would not be adequate here to protect the public from serious harm from you when you are in due course released into the community. 

You will today therefore on this indictment be made the subject of an extended sentence, which disposal will be in two parts.  The first part will be custodial.  The second part will take the form of an extension period, when you will be under supervision while on licence in the community.  The conditions of your licence will be fixed by Scottish Ministers.  If you fail to comply with these licence conditions during the extension period your licence will be revoked and you may be returned to custody for a further period in respect of this indictment.  The court also has power to deal with you if you commit a further offence after your release from the custodial part of this sentence while you are on licence and under supervision.

On this indictment you will accordingly serve an extended sentence of 14 years duration, with a custodial part of 9 years and an extension period of 5 years.  But for the timing of your guilty plea, such is my view of the exceptional gravity of your criminal conduct in this case, that I would have selected a notional headline custodial tariff of 12 years.  You appeared on petition in these proceedings on 9 May 2025.  Your section 76 letter was not submitted until 12 December 2025.  This was undoubtedly an early plea, with utilitarian value, but it was not a plea at the earliest opportunity. 

I confirm that the sentencing objectives of the custodial part are punishment and deterrence.  The objective of the relatively lengthy extension period is to achieve, what in your case will require to be with particularly stringent and robust measures, your successful, albeit heavily supervised, rehabilitation in due course into the community.

This sentence will be backdated to the date of your initial remand into custody in this case, namely to 9 May 2025.

Finally, standing the terms of this disposal, you will henceforth be subject to the notification requirements contained within Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period."

26 February 2026