Douglas Mills Senior and Douglas Mills Junior

Introduction

Douglas Mills Senior and Douglas Mills Junior, a father and son from Scotland, were convicted after trial of the attempted murder of Police Constable Mark Smith, a plain-clothes officer they dragged into a moving car in Hamilton on 30 August 2024 and threw from it while travelling at around fifty to fifty-five miles per hour. The jury’s verdicts were returned on 13 August 2026 after a trial in which the court was shown video footage of the moment Smith was thrown to the road and “struck the ground repeatedly, being propelled over a considerable distance” — injuries the sentencing judge, Judge Gallacher, called devastating and life changing. On 14 September 2026 both men were sentenced to seventeen years’ imprisonment, with the judge telling them the courts must show “that such behaviour will not be tolerated and will result in significant penalties” .

Background Information

Constable Smith and a colleague were undertaking what they expected to be normal plain-clothes duties in Hamilton when they saw a man carrying a quantity of cash cross the road toward a car driven by Mills Junior, with Mills Senior in the front passenger seat; the officers’ inference was that a drug transaction was about to take place. When the car pulled off the road and stopped, Smith approached to carry out a search, announcing himself audibly and showing his police warrant card, and again shouted his identity as a police officer as he leaned into the vehicle. There had been previous contact between the family and those officers, who had searched Mills Junior’s house a short time before — and Smith gave evidence that Mills Junior said something indicating he recognised and acknowledged who the officer was .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted of the attempted murder of PC Mark Smith, dragged into a speeding car and thrown to the road; seventeen years each.

As Constable Smith arrived at the vehicle he was pulled from his feet and inside it; the car moved off and accelerated rapidly, the officer suspended from it as it drove a significant distance at fifty to fifty-five miles per hour, at which point he was pushed on his body and thrown from the moving car. Judge Gallacher told the pair it was “hard to imagine a more eloquent manifestation” of wicked intent to kill or wicked recklessness than what the video recording showed as Smith was thrown and struck the ground repeatedly. By what the judge called “enormous good fortune” Smith survived; neither man challenged the fact that he sustained severe injuries causing permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment of various faculties and enduring impact on his life, and that his life was put in significant danger .

The court heard Smith’s victim statement in full: his hearing is impacted by tinnitus, his sense of smell diminished, physical injuries still require ongoing treatment and affect his mobility, and he is marked and scarred in a variety of places. He describes his life as becoming “a battle” across every aspect of his personal and family life, and expects his chosen career will not reach the development he had hoped for. The judge commended the strength of character with which he gave his evidence and expressed the hope that he may “find an avenue in which he can flourish once more” .

The case was presented to the jury as a concerted and joint attack, and the judge saw no basis to distinguish between the two men’s penalties — imposing seventeen years on each. For Mills Senior, whose criminal history was very limited apart from a years-ago jury appearance involving public disorder and violence, the sentence was backdated to 11 August 2026 with 353 days of his 706 days on electronically monitored bail to be treated as time in custody. Mills Junior, in custody since 2024, had his sentence backdated to 7 November 2024 .

Public Reaction and Consequences

Judge Gallacher framed the case around the position of police officers: daily they carry out duties that put them at risk, the community relies on them doing so, and when an officer carrying out such duties is subjected to an “outrageously wicked attack,” the courts must speak to those responsible, to anyone contemplating the same, and to the community. The remarks also catalogued Mills Junior’s driving record — a dangerous driving conviction in 2015, driving while disqualified in 2019, further offences in 2024, dangerous driving in 2023 sentenced in 2024, and failing to provide a specimen for cannabis on 2 August 2024, weeks before the attack. The report noted Mills Junior had “manifested remorse for the consequences of his actions,” but the judge found “very little” beyond that to mitigate .

Current Status

Both men are serving seventeen-year sentences for the attempted murder of PC Mark Smith. Mills Senior’s sentence took effect from 11 August 2026, with 353 of his electronically monitored bail days treated as custody; Mills Junior’s runs from 7 November 2024. The advocate depute had not advanced the attack as pre-planned, and the judge accepted neither man had previous convictions involving violence at solemn level — findings recorded alongside verdicts that nonetheless fixed the attack as attempted murder. No appeal outcome is recorded in the published statement .

Impact on Their Career/Life

The father and son now share a seventeen-year sentence for one of the gravest attacks on an officer documented in a published Scottish sentencing statement — an attack the video of which, the trial judge observed, “all who saw those images will always remember.” PC Smith’s career is expected to fall short of what he hoped, his life diminished across hearing, smell, mobility and scarring; the two men who caused it begin sentences that will keep them in prison into the 2040s .

Sources

• “HMA v Douglas Mills Senior and Douglas Mills Junior” — Judiciary of Scotland sentencing statement, 14 September 2026: source