Lewis Simpson

Introduction

Lewis Simpson is a 22-year-old first offender who was found guilty by a jury at the High Court in Glasgow on 11 September 2026 of engaging in a course of behaviour, covering in excess of two years, that was abusive of his then partner. Although the jury made substantial deletions to the charge, it convicted him of four separate elements of abusive conduct: repeated abuse by compressing the complainer’s neck to her injury; abuse on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day that left the complainer injured; and two further episodes of physical abuse, both involving neck compression, one of which was to the danger of the complainer’s life. Judge McCartney sentenced him to 32 months’ imprisonment and made an indefinite non-harassment order banning any approach to or contact with his victim .

Background Information

The abusive course began when Simpson was only 15 years old and its last elements occurred when he was 17; he was 22 at sentencing, which brought the Scottish guidelines on sentencing young people into play, requiring the court to take account of his youth and immaturity when assessing culpability. He came before the court as a first offender who had never served a custodial sentence. The social work report recorded some insight — Simpson acknowledged the life-threatening nature of the neck-compression act — but also noted, though he disputed it, that he made attempts to minimise the seriousness of his behaviour . The complainer’s victim impact statement set out the effects of the crime on her, detailing profound effects on her mental health .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted after trial of a two-year domestic abuse course including neck compression; 32 months.

Sentencing, Judge McCartney stressed that the repeated compression of the complainer’s neck — on one occasion to the danger of her life — is a serious matter, observing that the courts have seen a rise in offences of this type. Recalling the Appeal Court’s repeated statements that choking, strangling or inhibiting another person’s breathing in any context, sexual or otherwise, is always criminal, that consent is not a defence, and that such conduct can have profound physical and mental-health consequences for complainers, the judge noted the Appeal Court’s view that this conduct generally merits severe punishment because it is prevalent in society, insidious, harmful, often controlling and always extremely dangerous . On the conviction before her, she was satisfied that only a custodial sentence could be imposed given the gravity of the offence: taking account of his age and first-offender status, she limited the sentence to 32 months’ imprisonment from that day .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The court paired the custodial term with an indefinite non-harassment order: Simpson shall not approach, contact or communicate with the complainer, or attempt to do so, directly or indirectly, for an indefinite period — protection that does not expire with the sentence. The judgment also puts on the public record, in the Appeal Court’s own words, that neck compression is criminal in every context and that consent is no defence to it, framing Simpson’s conviction within the wider judicial response to a rising pattern of strangulation-type offending in domestic abuse cases . The Christmas Eve-to-Christmas-Day element — abuse committed across the holiday while the course of conduct was ongoing — and the life-endangering compression were the facts that removed any prospect of a non-custodial disposal .

Current Status

Simpson is serving 32 months’ imprisonment imposed after his 11 September 2026 conviction, and remains bound by the indefinite non-harassment order. Because the sentence followed a trial rather than a plea, there was no plea credit to reduce it, and the young-person guideline was already reflected in the 32-month figure the court selected as the limit of what it would impose on a 22-year-old first offender . No appeal was reported in the published remarks .

Impact on Their Career/Life

Simpson leaves court at 22 with a High Court conviction for a course of domestic abuse that began when he was a school-age 15-year-old, a prison term that will consume his early twenties, and a lifetime legal prohibition on contacting the woman he abused. The jury’s substantial deletions mean the conviction stands on four proven elements — repeated neck compression, holiday-season abuse causing injury, and two further violent episodes — rather than the full libel, but each of those four involved physical violence and two involved compression of his partner’s neck, one to the danger of her life . The judgment’s express reliance on the Appeal Court’s stranglehold jurisprudence — that consent is irrelevant and such conduct is always criminal — marks his case as part of the documented judicial hardening against neck-compression offending, whatever the offender’s age .

Sources

• “HMA v Lewis Simpson, remarks of Judge McCartney” — Judiciary of Scotland, 22 October 2026: source