SENTENCING STATEMENTS

Upon sentencing, Lord Renucci made the following remarks:

"On 26 June at a preliminary hearing, you pled guilty to charges 1 and 3 on the indictment.

"Charge 1 was a charge of assault to severe injury and charge 3 was one of murder.

"Your victim in each charge was your partner Samantha Lee, as such both charges were domestically aggravated. The murder charge was further aggravated by the fact that at the time of its commission, you were subject to not one, but three separate bail orders.

"The first of these, from 22 October 2025, was in respect of the assault in charge 1, when you were granted bail with special conditions not to approach or contact Miss Lee. You were then released on bail for another offence on 15 December 2025 and yet again on 17 December 2025 just two days later, this time for breaching your bail conditions by being in contact with Miss Lee.

"In relation to charge 1, the court was shown graphic mobile phone footage of the assault on Miss Lee on 14 October 2025, when even the fact that you knew you were being filmed did not deter you from continuing the assault.

"Instead, in what can only be described as a prolonged, sustained and vicious attack, you carried on, punching and striking her on the head with a telephone handset as she lay defenceless on the ground. The attack was as shocking as it was cowardly, and if you were prepared to act like that in the middle of a public street, in the knowledge you were being filmed, then the horror of what must have occurred when you went onto murder Miss Lee in the privacy of your own home does not bear thinking about. A murder that took place only two weeks after you had been released on bail for the third time.

"Even now it is unclear as to what exactly took place within your flat between the 1 and 4 January 2026, because notwithstanding the fact that you have accepted responsibility for her murder you claim to have no recollection of it.

"As a result, it has been left to the forensic scientists and the pathologists to put the pieces together and provide us with some idea of the extent of your actions. What the forensic biology and forensic pathology evidence can tell us, is that at some point between the 1 January 2026, when Miss Lee was last seen alive, and the discovery of her body on 4 January 2026, you took hold of her and repeatedly struck her on the head and body with a claw hammer or similar type implement whereby she fell to the floor and as in the previous assault in charge 1, that assault continued whilst she was lying defenceless on the ground.

"This time leaving her with catastrophic head injuries from which she died. Injuries that included extensive fracturing of the skull, depressed skull fractures as well as fractures to her cheek and eye orbit. All injuries that indicated a large number of blunt force impacts to the head and face. In inflicting those injuries, you deprived three adult children of their much-loved mother.

"The joint victim impact statement provided to me, prepared by Miss Lee’s three children make abundantly clear the profound impact that your actions have had upon them, and no sentence that the court can impose can compensate for the grief and loss that you have visited upon them. Your actions have left a large void in their lives.

"The terms of the criminal justice social work report make worrying reading, because even though you have pled guilty, you seem to exhibit a degree of victim blaming and appear to struggle to understand your offences in the context of domestic abuse or violence.

"Well Mr Greer, domestic abuse is a scourge on our society, and it is difficult to imagine a worse example than that exhibited by you towards Miss Lee.

"Of even more concern in the criminal justice social work report, is the fact that you told the author of the report that following your assault of Miss Lee in October, you had regular thoughts about killing her, although you claim you had never made a plan to do so.

"I have listened carefully to the very eloquent and able submissions which have been made on your behalf by Mr Lenehan, and I have also considered the very full terms of the criminal justice social work report.

"However, anything that can be said on your behalf is heavily outweighed by the sheer gravity of your offending.

"You are no stranger to the courts or indeed to violence, having regard to your schedule of previous convictions and, as I indicated on the last occasion, the only sentence for murder is fixed by law. That is life imprisonment and that is the sentence that I now impose in respect of charge 3.

"In respect of charge 1, you are sentenced to 5 years imprisonment, 6 months of which is attributable to the aggravation in terms of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016. The sentence for charge 1 is to be served concurrently with charge 3, the murder charge.

"However, as part of the sentencing process I am also required to fix a punishment part. In doing so I must reflect the need not only to punish you but to deter you and others from committing murder and in particular murder within a domestic setting.

"Please understand this Mr Greer, the punishment part is not the period you will spend in custody before being released, the punishment part is the number of years you must serve before you can even be considered for release on life licence.

"You may never be released, whether you are released at some point will be a decision for the parole board, and that decision will be determined by the risk you pose.

"In fixing the punishment part therefore, I must ignore the risk you may pose in the future. As I have said that will be a matter for the Parole Board. What I take account of principally, is the seriousness of the offence for which you have been convicted, namely murder and the circumstances in which you committed it. I must also take account of the other crime of assault to severe injury.

"Having regard to the whole circumstances, I fix the punishment part for the murder charge, charge 3, at 23 years, 9 months of that would have been attributable to the aggravation in terms of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016, and 9 months would have been attributable to the bail aggravation.

"To take account of the other charge, charge 1, I increase the punishment part. The increase is limited to that part of the sentence attributable to retribution, deterrence and the loss of the possibility of early release.

"The punishment part will therefore be increased to 25 years. However, I also require to take account of the timing of your plea and the utilitarian value of that plea to the criminal justice system.

"I will therefore reduce the punishment part to 22 years imprisonment to take account of this.

"The sentence will run from 31 December 2025, to take account of the week you previously spent on remand in respect of charge 1."

7 August 2026