SENTENCING STATEMENTS
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HMA v Thomas Martin Joseph William Gilheaney
Mar 19, 2026
On sentencing Lord Arthurson made the following remarks in court:
"Thomas Martin Jospeh William Gilheaney, you have this morning pled guilty to a single charge section 76 indictment. The charge is one of assault to injury and robbery, having entered your victim’s address uninvited, all while you were on a recent bail order.
This offence occurred on 23 October 2025 in Munro Avenue, Kilmarnock. You had only been released from a prior custodial sentence a few weeks earlier. Your victim is aged 83. Having been at the property on an earlier date to undertake a minor roof repair, on the date in question, having been drinking heavily, you barged in through her front door, grabbed her by the arm and dragged her behind you as you went upstairs and then into the living room in order to rob her of her purse and contents and a mobile telephone. When police officers attended they found your victim distressed and terrified, hiding behind her front door. She sustained bruising to her arm. After your attack upon her she went to live with family members as she was too afraid to return to her property. She had lived there for 50 years.
You are now aged 41 and have an appalling criminal record. You have to date accrued 26 groups of previous convictions in Scotland, and 2 groups in England, up to and including Crown Court level. You have served one custodial sentence in England and have served no less than 19 such sentences in Scotland. Two of your Scottish convictions were at sheriff and jury level, one related to the crime of assault to severe injury with a metal pole, and two of your convictions have been in the High Court, the first in 2010 for the crime of assault to severe injury and robbery, with a knife, while on bail, and the second in 2019 for the crime of hamesucken, assault to injury and attempted robbery.
I have listened with care to the submissions advanced in mitigation by your senior counsel this morning, and note in particular what has been said by her regarding your perception of the background to the offence; your upbringing and time in a care setting; your misuse of alcohol from a young age; your present personal and family circumstances; and matters related to your mental health.
Turning to disposal, in the whole circumstance, it is plain that only a substantial custodial sentence is appropriate in this matter. This was a despicable and in my view targeted crime of violence against a highly vulnerable 83 year old lady in her own home, with robbery as its object, committed by you a matter of weeks after your release from prison while you were on licence and of course on bail., and while you were under the influence of alcohol.
Turning to disposal, taking into account the gravity of this offence alongside your extensive and directly analogous criminal history, I now confirm that you will on this indictment serve a period of 5 years and 6 months imprisonment, reduced in respect of the timing and utility of your early guilty plea from a notional headline custodial period of 7 years and 6 months. I attribute 6 months of that notional headline tariff to the bail aggravation libelled. A section 16 period of 123 days is available to the court in this case, but in the interests of simplicity and clarity, I propose not to make a separate section 16 return order. Instead, I confirm that the sentence imposed on the present indictment will run from today, with no backdating order made.
Finally, on unopposed Crown motion, the court pronounces a non-harassment order in respect of the complainer in this case. You will not approach or contact her, or attempt to do so, directly or indirectly, in any way whatsoever, all for an indefinite period."
19 March 2026