SENTENCING STATEMENTS

Upon sentencing, Lord Cubie made the following remarks:

"You have each pled guilty by s76 indictment to a series of violent offences in Glasgow city centre, with you Mr Murphy pleading guilty to a later violent offence.

"You effectively went on a rampage, effectively attacking people randomly as you saw fit during the course of a few hours.

"Your behaviour was violent, thuggish, drink-fuelled and indiscriminate. It started at 5pm when you attacked Jordan Dunsmore where after a trivial exchange about clothing you both attacked him punching and kicking him on the head and body. This appeared to be uncontrolled and resulted in severe injury. It took place in the city centre, during daylight hours in a busy thoroughfare, none of which affected your actions.

"Around three hours later you turned your malevolent attention to four visiting Chinese students; attacked for racial motivations, crossing the street to assault them and then crossing the road to arm yourselves with bottles which were used as weapons. The footage showed the sustained nature of the assault with bottles and what was shouted.

"It is perfectly clear that these offences were racially motivated given what was shouted at the time whatever your distorted self view is; you caused severe injury to Mr He, injury to Mr Lu. That the others were unscathed was a matter of luck not restraint on your parts.

"You Mr Murphy then moved on to assault Mr Mannion, whom you struck with a bottle on the head, causing injury.

"A short time later you found yourselves at central station where another vile and cowardly attack was carried out on David Silver. Again clearly from the footage unprovoked, you assaulted him by bringing him to the ground before you Mr Murphy turned back to assault him, you Mr Lawrie joined in and you then both repeatedly kicked and stamped on his head and body whilst he lay motionless on the ground. It is truly shocking and sickening and unaffected by the people passing by. You have accepted by your plea that you caused severe injury permanent disfigurement and danger to life. Again it is a matter of luck and nothing else that you are not facing more serious charge.

"In an earlier episode of this disgraceful series of wanton and violent behaviour, you attacked Mr O'Neill who was finishing work; threatened him for his phone and money before attacking him by punching him and throwing a bottle at him.

"As is recognised in the reports and as I read in the Victim Impact Statement your behaviour had material consequences for the complainers; the effects as well as the obvious physical harm affected confidence, sense of security, willingness to socialise and to go out even. Each person will think long and hard about visiting Glasgow city centre given their experience.

"Your offending was indiscriminate, presenting a substantial threat to public safety in Glasgow city centre, an area currently giving rise to concern because of the apparent prevalence of anti-asocial behaviour of exactly this type.

"The mechanism included hands, feet - both kicking and stamping - head butts and the use of bottles as weapons and included bringing victims to the ground to make the assaults easier for you.

"I have sat as a judge dealing with cases of city centre violence for in excess of fifteen years. This is the worst example I have encountered of a sustained, wanton, violent and destructive combination of offending. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

"Instead of which you are both to a large extent unapologetic.

"For you Mr Murphy each of the city centre assault arose because you say each victim had engaged in argument or confrontation prior to the assaults. You must be the unluckiest person in the world; many people manage to visit Glasgow regularly without once being involved in an incident of this nature and you encountered eight people who challenged you. It is as insulting as it is ridiculous.

"You claim to be disgusted and remorseful but the social worker perceptively attributes this at least in part to an opportunistic pretence of remorse, inconsistent with your discussion about the case in advance of the report being prepared. And of course you further offended in April 2026 while on bail for this offence which as the report concludes is hardly consistent with some charge of heart or realisation of your unacceptable behaviour; in charge 9 you hit your victim (your cousin’s boyfriend) with a bottle of vodka because he said something  to use your word 'cheeky', causing severe injury.

"You claim that you are not racist because white people were also attacked; the court, you reason, is racist. But you plead guilty to a racially aggravated offence because of the racist language that you used.

"You did to your credit appear to understand the seriousness and risk of the kind of assaults perpetrated, accepting actively searching for bottles to use as weapons but the commitment to change is rightly treated with some scepticism in the report.

"For you Mr Lawrie the same inability to accept responsibility arises. The first complainer was the aggressor you say; he 'started on you'; you deny any racial slurs also; you are not racist because you have a friend from Iran, and you would have attacked anyone. It is utterly unconvincing. You minimise the seriousness of the offending. You are unable to remember much of what happened. Again there is limited insight, limited depth in your appreciation of the impact on the victims.

"Both of you appear to have conducted the interviews in a disrespectful and derogatory way, given language used about the allegations and the victims.

"I have taken into account what has been said on your behalf and the very detailed and helpful reports provided; and note the adverse childhood experiences both of you have endured. But these offer limited explanation for your behaviour, and no excuse.

"You seemed to have decided to go on the rampage; so far as the events of 14 September 2025 are concerned I do not propose to draw any distinction between you in relation to charges in which you both participated other than relating to the bail aggravations of Mr Murphy. Your involvement includes emboldening encouraging and assisting each other whoever delivered the actual blows and with whatever was used; the behaviour was savage and brutal.

"There is nothing which amounts to provocation; you were not known to any victim; the motivation was not clear; you made racist comments; you attacked groups and individuals, in the street and inside central station.

"When it comes to sentencing, the exercise of sentencing a young person is different from that of sentencing an older person, in particular because a young person will generally have a lower level of maturity, and a greater capacity for change and rehabilitation, than an older person.

"This means I have to have regard to your maturity at the time the offence was committed. Young people are generally less able to exercise good judgement when making decisions; there is in your case no element where you were subjected to peer pressure or some kind of exploitative relationship although I am sure that encouraged one another but I do recognise that in carrying out this attack, you both thought less clearly about what could happen as a result of your actions, including the impact on any victims and others affected by those actions; and you took more risks.

"As a consequence I recognise that your culpability is lower than that of an older person who is to be sentenced for the same, or a similar, offence.

"The purposes of a sentence include protection of the public; punishment; rehabilitation of offenders; giving the offender the opportunity to make amends; and expressing disapproval of offending behaviour.

"In this case given the nature and extent of the behaviour and the sustained course of conduct, the custody threshold has been passed; that means that the considerations about rehabilitation affect the length of sentence only. Culpability is high; harm is high; the purposes of punishment and condemnation outweigh other sentencing purposes. I must impose a sentence of detention

"But in sentencing I also recognise that the guidelines provide that if a custodial sentence is imposed on a young person, it should be shorter than that which would have been imposed on an older person for the same, or a similar, offence in order that rehabilitation and integration can begin at an earlier date, and these are taken into account in the sentence imposed.

"You will receive credit for the timing of the pleas and for time spent in custody and for time spent on electronic bail.

"in preparing for this hearing I have considered what sentence would have been imposed of the individual offences, but it is not necessary for me to go through these in detail.

"To impose a discrete sentence for each offence and add these up would be, looking at the principles of totality, excessive so I will deal with this matter by the imposition of a cumulo sentence for all charges, but it must be a significant sentence to reflect the sustained disparate and violent nature of the offending and the damage caused to the victims and the harm to society.

"You Mr Murphy will be detained for a period of nine years and you Mr Lawrie for seven years and six months

"But that is not the end of your sentence; you will be subject to an extension period to be served in the community; from the date of your release, each of you will be under licence for a period of two years. The condition of your licence will be fixed by the Scottish ministers. If during this extension period you fail to comply with the conditions of your licence, it may be revoked and you may be returned to custody for a further period in respect of this case. The court also has power to deal with you if you commit another offence after your release and whilst on licence. The sentence will run from the date of your remand.

"The sentence for Mr Murphy is accordingly an extended sentence of 11 years with a custodial element of nine years; the relevant period for the purposes of s 210ZA is 107 days, so I direct that you be treated as having served that part of the sentence amounting to 107 days. The sentence will run from the date of then plea, 10 August 2026.

"The sentence for Mr Lawrie is accordingly an extended sentence of nine years and six months with a custodial element of seven years and six months; the relevant period for the purposes of s 210ZA is 157 days, so I direct that you be treated as having served that part of the sentence amounting to 157 days. The sentence will run from the date of the plea and remand 10 August 2026."

8 September 2026