SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing Lord Harrower made the following remarks in court:

"You have been convicted of the murder of John McNab, a young man who had everything to live for and whose loss has left an incalculable void in the lives of his family and friends.  The incident was caught on CCTV, and the recording played in court.  Those present will never forget what they saw and heard: John McNab being chased by you along Great Junction Street in Leith; pleading with you for his life, as he realised he could no longer outrun you; and the sound of his screams, as he lay helpless on the ground, while you repeatedly plunged your knife into his body. At the time you committed this horrific crime, you were just 16 years old.  You were also on bail, having only six months previously assaulted another boy with a knife to his severe injury.  At a hearing last month, you pleaded guilty to both crimes, the circumstances of which can be summarised as follows.

On 21 March 2025, you were involved in a fight on Portobello promenade, with another boy also aged 16.  After the fight ended, the other boy walked away with his friends.  But you pursued him.  You produced a knife, described in the narrative as looking like a hunting knife, and slashed him on the back as he ran away.  The resulting laceration was about 11cm long.  It penetrated his subcutaneous fat layers, and caused the skin edges to gape open.  You also inflicted a minor laceration to his wrist.  The complainer was transported to hospital where he was examined under local anaesthetic and had the wound to his back stitched. Afterwards you boasted about what you did on social media. 

On 1 September 2025, you were involved in an unrelated confrontation with a group of young men which included John McNab. The initial dispute was over a purchase of cannabis, during which you were assaulted, although Mr McNab himself did not participate in that assault.  You followed the group as they walked away, challenging them to come back.  The young men locked themselves inside a flat in Great Junction Street, where one of them lived, while you remained in the area.  Almost an hour later, you smashed a bathroom window and brandished a knife at the occupants.  By this time it was about quarter to one in the morning.  You were warned by one of the neighbours that she would call the police, but you told her to mind her own business.  Half an hour later you climbed into bushes, where you lay in wait for the next forty minutes, wearing a balaclava and armed with a large knife.  When eventually John McNab left the flat to get into a taxi, you ambushed him.  Following a chase, he fell to the ground, and as he lay there, you carried out the merciless attack to which I have already referred.  You stabbed him three times to the left thigh, and inflicted one fatal wound to the abdomen.  You then fled, disposed of the knife, and sent threatening messages and voice notes boasting about the stabbing.   

Eventually the police recovered the knife.  It is described as a hunting-style knife, having a blade 208mm long and 47mm wide at its widest point. The injuries to Mr McNab’s thigh were between 7.6cm and 15.7cm deep.  The depth of the wound to Mr McNab’s abdomen was approximately 10cm.  It caused damage to his muscles, small intestine, aorta, inferior vena cava and even his spine.  The damage to his major blood vessels resulted in the bleeding into his abdominal cavity from which John McNab died.

I have been provided with two reports from a consultant psychiatrist, one written shortly after your admission to the secure residential school where you are currently detained, and the other written with the benefit of having observed you in that environment over several months.  By that stage, you had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder.  The psychiatrist reports that, throughout your time in the school you have deliberately acted in threatening or abusive ways in order to maintain your sense of dominance within your peer group.  She states that you have chosen to remain preoccupied with violence and criminality despite being encouraged to enjoy more wholesome and healthy life experiences.  She stresses that these persistent antisocial attitudes and behaviours are not themselves signs or symptoms of either autism or complex post-traumatic stress disorder.  She concludes that they would have had no significant impact on your reasoning when carrying out the murder, which she describes as well-organised and targeted. 

I also now have the justice social work report that has been prepared specifically for this hearing.  You are reported as saying that you had not targeted any one individual in particular, but that you accept that the murder was planned and pre-meditated.  She reports that while you felt sorry for John McNab’s family, you displayed no emotion, understanding or insight into the full impact on Mr McNab’s family and friends, or indeed your own family.  The social worker reports that you carry weapons for protection and in order to frighten and harm others.  The last few years of your life have been characterised by illegal drug use, drug selling and violent conflict in which you have been the perpetrator, victim and witness.  In this environment, she concludes, violence and conflict have become normal behaviour for you.

In sentencing you, I must assess the gravity of your offending.  In doing so I must first determine culpability and harm. 

So far as culpability is concerned, I acknowledge that youth and immaturity played their part.  Your best interests and your rehabilitation must be primary considerations, among others. According to the relevant sentencing guideline the sentence imposed on a young person should be shorter than that which would have been imposed on an older person for the same, or a similar, offence. Both offences involved the use of knives and were followed by social media boasting and threats.  However, the murder was a conspicuous example of a premeditated knife crime, in which the fatal blow was inflicted with considerable force.  The fact that you were on bail at the time is a particularly concerning factor. 

So far as harm is concerned, any case of murder involves the highest level of harm.  In this case, I also have the benefit of information from John McNab’s family and friends which movingly describe the considerable impact that his death has had upon them.  Nor should the severe physical injury sustained by the complainer in charge 1 be underestimated.  He too has provided a victim impact statement detailing the psychological consequences that your assault has had upon him. 

The only sentence I may lawfully impose on you for murder is one of detention without limit of time.   However, I also have to specify a period which must pass before you can apply for release on parole.  Whether you will ever be released will be for others to determine.  The period I select is known as the punishment part of the sentence, and its purpose is to satisfy the requirements of retribution and deterrence.  The parole board will deal in due course with the protection of the public.  In fixing the punishment part of your sentence I must take into account the seriousness of the murder combined with the other offence on the indictment of which you have been convicted.

Having taken account of the able submissions of Mr Stewart and all the material before me, I now sentence you as follows.

For the assault to severe injury in charge 1, had I been sentencing you after trial, I would have sentenced you to detention for a period of 4 years. Taking account of the timing of your plea, which was made over a year after the commission of the offence, I will reduce that sentence to a period of three years’ detention, backdated to 4 September 2025, when you were first remanded in respect of what is now charge 2.  That sentence will run concurrently with the sentence I am about to impose. 

For the murder of John McNab, I sentence you to detention without limit of time.  Had I been sentencing you after trial, I would have fixed a notional punishment part of 18 years and 6 months, 6 months of which would have been attributable to the bail aggravation.  Taking account of the timing of your plea, I am prepared to reduce that notional period to 15 years and 6 months.  However I must also take into account the offence in charge 1.  In the result, I will fix the punishment part of your sentence at 17 years.  That period will also be backdated to 4 September 2025.