SNS GroupA senior judge has said that sex offenders who rape children should receive harsher sentences than people who commit the same offence on adults.
Lord Beckett made the observations in a judgment in which prosecutors succeeded in their bids to increase the jail terms given to two sex offenders.
The Lord Justice Clerk – Scotland’s second most senior judge – sat with his colleagues Lord Matthews and Lord Armstrong in a case brought against Andrew McMahon, 69, and Christian Lambert, 22.
McMahon was given a five-year jail term by Judge Alison Stirling following proceedings at the High Court in Edinburgh in March 2025. Lambert was given three years and four months after two hearings at the same court in the Scottish capital.
A jury heard how McMahon raped a 12-year-old girl in a wooded area in Edinburgh and told her not to tell others about what happened to her.
Lambert, a former boarding school pupil, pleaded guilty to raping another 12-year-old girl in Slateford, Edinburgh, in March 2024.
Judge Lord Summers heard how Lambert told a court-appointed social worker that he felt “aroused” when he was choking his victim.
Prosecutor Paul Harvey went to the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh earlier this year to argue that the sentences given to the pair were unduly lenient and should have been longer.
He said the judges didn’t properly consider the exact circumstances of the attacks and the impact that they would have had on the victims.
The court heard that even McMahon thought the sentence given to him was unduly lenient.
Mr Harvey told the appeal judges that the sentences given to the two men should have been longer.
In a written judgement published by the court on Tuesday, Lord Beckett writes of how Mr Harvey also invited him and his colleagues to find that rapists convicted under section 18 of the Sexual Offences Scotland Act 2009 – the rape of a young child – should receive longer sentences.
He said their sentences should be longer than ones given to rapists prosecuted under section one of the legislation – the rape of an adult.
Mr Harvey’s submissions succeeded. McMahon’s sentence was increased to 11 years – he will also be supervised by the authorities for two years after his release from jail.
Lambert’s jail term was also increased to five years and three months, with a three-year-long supervision order put in place for his immediate post-release life.
In the judgment, Lord Beckett wrote: “The crime of rape generally is a particularly serious offence. It is apparent that in England, the guidelines have a higher starting point for rape of a young child than for an older person.
“Rape of a young child will generally be more culpable than rape of an older person, serious though both crimes are.
“It is also likely that there will be a higher level of harm. Courts in both England and Scotland have recognised that sexual exploitation of a young child may be comparatively easy to commit given the physical and intellectual advantages of an adult over a young child.
“Both individual and general deterrence is an important sentencing objective.
“Whilst there can be exceptional cases with exceptional circumstances, in general in the absence of exceptional circumstances, the appropriate sentence for rape of a child under 18 will be significantly higher than for rape under s1.”
McMahon subjected his victim to sexual assaults on two occasions in Edinburgh in the summer of 2023.
During the first attack at a house in the Granton area of the city, he subjected the girl to an oral rape on an occasion between March 28 and August 17 in 2023.
McMahon then raped a second victim on August 18 that year in the Niddrie area when he attacked her outdoors and grabbed her, pulled her and pushed her to the ground.
The rapist told his child victim not to tell anyone and threatened her after subjecting her to the sexual abuse.
After a jury returned guilty verdicts against the sex offender, Judge Alison Stirling told jurors that it was “a difficult and anxious case”.
Meanwhile, the court heard how Lambert pretended to be a teenager in order to sexually assault the child whom he encountered whilst using the Snapchat messaging app.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard how the attack took place at a house in the city’s Slateford area in March last year. The child thought she was going to meet a boy who was a couple of years older than she was.
When Lambert, also of Edinburgh, appeared before Judge Lord Summers for sentencing, the court heard how Lambert was assessed as being at “high risk” of further sexual offending.
The court also heard how Lambert had choked the girl as he raped her.
This prompted Lord Summers to send Lambert to jail for three years and four months for the attack.
On Tuesday, the appeal concluded that the sentences given to the two men were “unduly lenient”.
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