SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, Judge McCallum KC told Murdoch:

"William Murdoch, on 6 August 2026, you were convicted by the unanimous verdict of a jury of the oral and vaginal rape, and the digital/vaginal penetration, of a 19-year-old female in your own home. You were aged 56 when you committed this offence.

On the evidence, this 19-year-old female, who was not from Saltcoats where this offence was committed, had been out socialising with a friend or friends in a public house near your home. She consumed a significant account of alcohol, so that by the end of the evening, she described herself as being ‘hammered’.

No doubt because of the effect of alcohol, her behaviour became such that she was ejected from that public house and found herself alone and separated from her friends in an unfamiliar place.

You had also been in that same public house when she had been there. Whilst there was no interaction between the two of you within the public house, CCTV footage played during the trial showed you standing at the bar for a considerable period of time looking over to the area where she was. This must have afforded you an opportunity to observe her and the condition that she was in.

You left the public house before she was ejected from it.

Relatively soon after, you came upon her sitting on the pavement near a takeaway food shop just along the street from your flat. You engaged her in conversation. You discovered that her phone was running out of charge. You offered to take her to your flat so that she could charge her phone and for you to give her a cup of coffee before taking her home.  She asked you to promise that you wouldn’t be weird with her. You promised you wouldn’t, telling her that you were a grandpa. These things being said were overheard by someone else.

Once you had got her back to your flat, within a short period of time, within your living room area, you proceeded to rape her orally. You then digitally penetrated her vagina before proceeding to rape her vaginally. On the evidence, it appears that in your dealings with her, you used derogatory names or words of a sexual nature towards her. On the evidence, you had used a similar derogatory name or word of a sexual nature about females in general earlier on that evening whilst in the public house.

Whilst your victim was within your flat, other people came to your front door. You lied to them, telling them that you had a homeless girl in your flat; and prevented their efforts to get her out of the flat, saying that she was fine and would be sleeping on your couch. You closed the door on them and proceeded to rape your victim.

It goes without saying that this was a very serious offence. In my assessment, you took advantage of a significantly younger female, rendered vulnerable by her drunken condition and the fact that she was alone in an unfamiliar area; and you used deception or a false offer of assistance to lure or induce her back to your own home, whereafter you proceeded to rape her both orally and vaginally; and to penetrate her vagina digitally.

Your behaviour can, in my assessment, be properly described or characterised as predatory.

The significant age gap between yourself and your victim is, in my view, an aggravating factor.

I have considered the terms of Criminal Justice Social Work report in which you maintain your innocence. The author of that report assessed that you engaged in what is sometimes referred to as ‘victim blaming’, that you minimised and justified your actions and appeared to demonstrate a complete lack of insight into the seriousness of the offence of which you have been convicted.

I have also read a a Victim Impact Statement in which your victim explains the adverse psychological and other effects that your behaviour has caused her.

In my view, both the level of your culpability and the harm that you have caused in this case were high.

I have listened to all that has been said on your behalf. I note that you are now 58 years of age. I note that, although you have a number of previous convictions, all of these appear to be at summary level; and that you have no previous convictions for any offences similar to this offence.

That all being said, the gravity of this offence means that the sentencing objectives of punishment, deterrence, public protection and the expression of disapproval of such conduct are the prevailing sentencing objectives in this case; so that a significant sentence of imprisonment is the only appropriate disposal in your case.

Because you fall to be sentenced in respect of this offence after 3 March 2026, the Scottish Sentencing Council’s Rape Sentencing Guideline applies to you.

Given that, in my view, the commission of this offence involved the targeting of a victim who was vulnerable at the time of the commission of the offence by virtue of her drunken condition and her being alone at night in an unfamiliar area; and also, in my assessment, involved the use of a degree of deception to facilitate the offence given your false offer of assistance to the complainer to induce her to come to your flat in the first place, I am satisfied that your Level of Culpability falls into Level A in terms of the Guideline.

In regard to the Level of Harm caused, I am prepared to proceed on the basis that the case should be assessed at Level 3.

For an offence of Rape with a Level of Culpability at Level A and a Level of Harm at Level 3, the Guideline provides a sentencing range of between 6 to 8 years’ custody.

Given that this offence involved both penile/oral rape and penile/vaginal rape and also digital/vaginal penetration in its commission; and given the significant age gap between yourself and the victim, I have identified a period of 7 years’ imprisonment as being the minimum sentence that I can properly impose commensurate with the gravity of this offence.

I am, however, not satisfied that, in your case, the conditions of s. 210A (1) of the Criminal Procedure (Sc) Act 1995 are met; so that I should impose an Extended Sentence.

I therefore impose a sentence of 7 years’ imprisonment. That sentence will date from 6 August 2026 when you were remanded into custody following upon conviction.

When you first appeared on petition in respect of this matter at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on 8 May 2024, you were granted bail subject to a curfew condition with electronic monitoring. The period between 8 May 2024 and 6 August 2026 when bail was revoked amounts to a total of 819 days or nights that you were subject to that curfew condition with electronic monitoring. Therefore, in terms of s. 210ZA of the Criminal Procedure (Sc) Act 1995, I shall order that a period of 410 days of the sentence that I have imposed is to be treated as having been served.

As a result of your conviction, you are subject to the Notification Requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. As a result of the sentence that I have imposed, that will be for an Indefinite Period.

Furthermore, having regard to the terms of the Victim Impact Statement, I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that it is necessary to impose such an Order to protect your victim from further harassment.  I shall therefore grant the Crown's motion for a Non Harassment Order; in consequence of which you shall not contact, attempt to contact, approach or attempt to approach your victim for an Indefinite Period.

That is all."

28 August 2026