Derek McNee

Introduction

Derek McNee pleaded guilty at the High Court in Glasgow to three offences: the repeated rape of a partner while she was intoxicated and unconscious, a more-than-four-year course of abusive behaviour against another former partner, and possession of a charged stun gun found under the steering wheel of his car when police stopped him. Judge Young imposed an extended sentence of eight and a half years — a custodial term of seven years plus an eighteen-month extension period — after starting from a post-trial total of ten years, and made McNee subject to indefinite sex offender notification requirements and indefinite non-contact orders for both complainers. The sentence was backdated to 31 December 2025, the date of his remand .

Background Information

The most serious charge involved McNee’s second complainer, over a four-month period: McNee and the complainer regularly took controlled drugs, as a result of which she often fell asleep or became unconscious. The sexual acts set out in the charge took place when she was affected by those intoxicants and incapable of giving consent, and included penile penetration of the mouth, vagina and anus — acts the court said amount to rape. The Crown narrative recorded that the complainer had agreed McNee could do sexual things to her while she was asleep, and could record what he did; he then sent videos to her showing some of what he had done while she was not conscious, and instructed her to delete them . The first charge, against his first complainer, was of a different character: despite substantial deletion, McNee admitted abusive behaviour extending well over four years toward a woman who was then his partner and relied on him for support, involving derogatory remarks and insults, shouting and provocation, causing her significant distress over a long period . The fifth charge was possession of a stun gun — a prohibited weapon found charged up under the steering wheel of his car when he was stopped by police .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted raping an unconscious partner, domestic abuse and stun-gun possession; extended sentence of eight and a half years.

Judge Young first stated the sentences McNee would have received absent his pleas. For the rape charge, the judge found culpability marked by repeated offending, significant planning and the recording of the incidents, and harm marked by the level of psychological harm and the prolonged nature of some incidents; the court held that the relevant level of risk to public safety was made out to justify supervision after release, with licence conditions set by the Scottish Ministers and recall to court for any breach. The post-trial total would have been ten years — a custodial part of eight and a half years, of which six months reflected the domestic aggravation, plus the eighteen-month extension. Because McNee pleaded at a preliminary hearing, the court reduced the individual terms: four and a half months for the domestic abuse charge, a custodial part of 76 and a half months for the rape, and three months for the stun gun — consecutive, totalling 84 months, or seven years, plus the eighteen-month extension .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The risk assessment evidence shaped the extended sentence: a risk report assessed McNee at only average risk of sexual reconviction but identified significant features pointing toward a risk of future domestic abuse — increasingly serious offending, substance abuse problems, unresolved trauma, his behaviour in intimate relationships, and distorted thinking about his abusive behaviour. The reporter concluded that, given the risk he posed on liberation, a lengthy period of post-custody supervision was required, which is the extension period the court built into the sentence . McNee’s counsel emphasised that he accepted the legal basis of his guilt as discussed in the plea, suggested that contrary comments in the report were minimisation rather than outright denial, and pointed to scope for rehabilitation; the court paid close attention to that mitigation before imposing the extended sentence .

Current Status

McNee is serving an extended sentence of eight and a half years — seven years in custody, backdated to his 31 December 2025 remand, plus eighteen months on licence after release — and is subject to sex offender notification requirements for an indefinite period. The court also made orders prohibiting any communication or contact with either complainer, likewise indefinite. Breach of the licence conditions can return him to court for further measures . No appeal was reported in the published remarks .

Impact on Their Career/Life

McNee’s guilty pleas converted what would have been a ten-year post-trial total into an eight-and-a-half-year extended sentence, but the structure of the sentence — indefinite registration, indefinite non-contact orders and a supervised extension period — means the state’s controls over him do not end when the seven-year custodial part does. The findings against him include recording unconscious victims and sending them the footage, a four-year pattern of denigrating and provoking a partner who depended on him, and keeping a charged stun gun in his car, a combination the risk reporter tied to escalating, distortion-driven intimate-partner offending . The extended-sentence structure exists precisely for offenders the court assesses as needing supervision beyond custody, and the published remarks place on record that the court found that level of risk made out against him .

Sources

• “HMA v Derek McNee, remarks of Judge Young” — Judiciary of Scotland, 2 November 2026: source