Lee Mullen

Introduction

Lee Mullen is a Scottish man who pleaded guilty on the third day of his trial to fourteen charges committed against three former partners between 2020 and 2024 — seven of rape, one of attempted rape, three of assault to injury or severe injury, two of engaging in a course of abusive behaviour under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 and one of stalking. Judge Collins KC, sentencing him on 6 October 2026, called the offences “an appalling and protracted catalogue of sexual and physical violence and domestic abuse”, and imposed an extended sentence of seventeen years’ custody with an eight-year extension period after weighing and setting aside an order for lifelong restriction .

Background Information

Mullen came to the case with a long history of offending: between 2010 and 2023 he accrued 26 convictions at sheriff court level, including 13 crimes of violence, some involving the use of weapons, and 6 that were domestically aggravated, plus 11 convictions for breaching court orders. His offending had been met with fines, community sentences and short periods of detention or imprisonment, and his engagement with community sentences showed poor engagement on each occasion. The criminal justice social work report assessed him as being at high risk of causing serious harm to any future sexual partner, with behaviour likely to involve both serious physical and sexual abuse .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted seven rapes, an attempted rape, assaults and domestic abuse against three former partners; extended sentence of 17 years’ custody and an 8-year licence.

The pleas were negotiated and recorded on day three of the trial diet, 22 January 2026, after the first complainer had finished giving her evidence in chief — sparing her cross-examination and the other two complainers from giving evidence at all. All three complainers produced victim impact statements describing significant physical and mental harm. The court noted, however, that his acceptance of responsibility was limited: some offences he admitted, some he claimed to have no memory of, and some he continued to deny notwithstanding his guilty plea, blaming the complainers or his own intoxication .

Because the offences suggested a propensity to commit sexual and violent offences, the judge was required to consider the risk criteria for an order for lifelong restriction. A detailed risk assessment report concluded that Mullen shows a continued, regular and persistent use of sexual violence toward all three complainers, is unpredictable and impulsive with poor anger control, and sits within the severe range of global personality functioning — management requiring intensive, robust restriction over an exceptionally long-term period. The assessor nevertheless placed him at medium rather than high risk, concluding that measures short of lifelong restriction were possible given a very lengthy custodial sentence and extension period. Judge Collins KC accepted that conclusion, with some hesitation, only on the basis of the extended sentence she went on to impose .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The judge’s sentencing calculation set out that the charges taken consecutively would have totalled 65 years — excessive, she held, under the principle of totality — and settled on a cumulo custodial term of 18 years before reducing it by one year for the plea’s utilitarian value. She framed the purposes of sentence as punishment, protection of the public “and in particular, women”, and an expression of society’s disapproval of his behaviour towards women. Indefinite non-harassment orders protect all three complainers .

Current Status

Mullen is serving an extended sentence of seventeen years’ custody and an eight-year extension period, imposed on 6 October 2026 and backdated to 11 April 2024 when he appeared on petition and was remanded. By operation of law he is subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for an indefinite period, and he may not approach or contact any of the three complainers — directly or indirectly, by any means — for an indefinite period .

Impact on Their Career/Life

The sentence places Mullen among the longest terms handed down in the court’s domestic and sexual abuse caseload, with release possible only into a further eight years of supervised licence whose breach would return him to custody to serve out the remainder of the sentence. The court’s published reasoning — including the social worker’s finding that he took very little responsibility for the offences, blaming the complainers or his own intoxication — now forms the standing judicial record of his conduct toward women .

Sources

• “HMA v Lee Mullen” — Judiciary of Scotland sentencing statement, 6 October 2026: source