Teenagers’ sentences cut after attempted murder

● Judge failed to take adequate account of ages and circumstances

Two teenagers who were part of a pack that hunted down a victim in a brutal street murder bid have had their jail terms reduced.

Kane Reilly, 18, and a 17-yearold, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, were sentenced to eight and seven years detention respectively.

But appeal judges have now cut their sentences to six and five years detention.

The pair were part of a group of youths who chased Rhys Reynolds, 26, and after he stumbled attacked him with knives, a pole and a rock or slab.

He was also repeatedly punched, kicked and stamped on in the Hogmanay murder attempt at Delta Drive, in Musselburgh, East Lothian.

Mr Reynolds suffered 36 injuries, including facial fractures and bleeding to the brain following the attack on 31 December in 2018.

The group were sentenced to a total of 47 years at the High Court in Edinburgh last year after the trial judge Gordon Liddle condemned the “cowardly and vicious assault” which was captured on camera.

Three of the attackers successfully appealed against the sentences he imposed last month.

Aaron Thomson, 20, and Dean Riding, 22, were originally jailed for ten years and eight years, but saw their sentences cut to six and five years on appeal. Jayson Dodds, 19, who was found guilty of assault but acquitted of attempted murder, saw his sentence of four years’ detention overturned and was given a community payback order.

The attack occurred after a disturbance at a flat in Musselburgh involving the victim.

Defence solicitor advocate Gordon Martin, for the 17-year-old, told Lord Brodie, sitting with Lord Turnbull, at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh said that it was accepted it was a serious offence that required a custodial sentence.

But Mr Martin argued that the trial judge had failed to give sufficient weight to a number of factors in sentencing the teenager, including his age, difficult childhood experiences and that he has taken advantage of opportunities offered to him in custody.

Leanne Mcquillan, solicitor advocate for Reilly, said the sentencing judge had failed to take adequate account of his age at the time.