Robbers attacked victim with stun gun and knife at ATM

A woman who took part in a terrifying early morning attack on a man with a stun gun and a knife near a cashpoint machine has been jailed for five years.

Christopher McLeod was wounded in the back and knocked to the ground as Dawn Cullen and male accomplices assaulted him.

The robbers repeatedly discharged the stun gun into his body after they confronted him with demands for money, his bank card and its PIN number in the street attack.

Mr McLeod, then aged 26, was found bleeding heavily by police who went to his aid in Edinburgh and said he had been assaulted by a woman and males.

The attack victim was taken for treatment and found to have stab wounds to his lower back which were cleaned and closed with skin staples.

Cullen, 36, of Murrayburn Park, Edinburgh, and her co-accused prisoner Keith McCreadie, 36, had denied assaulting and robbing Mr McLeod on October 7 in 2019 at the city’s Morvenside Close, in Wester Hailes.

But Cullen was unanimously convicted of the offence and McCreadie was also found guilty of the crime on a majority verdict of a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh following a trial last month.

Sentence had been deferred for the court to obtain background reports on the pair.

On Thursday, shortly before McCreadie received a seven-year long jail term, judge Lord Beckett told the duo that jail was the only option available to them.

Passing sentence, Lord Beckett said: “This was a serious example of an offence of assault to injury to robbery.

“For such a serious offence and to deter any other person from committing such egregious crimes, I must pass an appropriate sentence.

“There is no suitable alternative to custody.”

The duo were accused of assaulting Mr McLeod while acting with another by making threats, repeatedly punching him on the head and striking him with a knife.

They also fired the stun gun at him before knocking him to the ground to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement and robbing him of money, a bank card and bus pass.

Cullen was also convicted of illegally possessing the stun gun and assaulting Heather Hughes, 30, at Morvenside Close on October 7 in 2019 by chasing her and brandishing the prohibited weapon.

The court heard that DNA from Cullen was found on a knife recovered by police from a nearby garden following the attack. She was also picked out as the woman who took part in the assault close to a Scotmid store, which has an ATM machine, during identification procedures.

CCTV which featured an audio recording was examined by forensic scientists who said that on three occasions distinct sounds could be heard which were consistent with that produced by a stun gun when it is operated in the open air.

One witness said he heard an attacker tell the victim that if he did not give details of his PIN he would be put in the boot of a car and saw him getting “Tasered”.

DC Jacqueline Grant, 43, who listened to the soundtrack on the CCTV said she heard a male voice ask: “Do you want Tasered?” as well as crackling sounds and groaning.

She told prosecutor Lisa Gillespie QC that an eight to ten inch long knife was found after the attack and blood was on a wall.

Following the convictions defence counsel Kenneth Cloggie, said Cullen was in remission from cancer but still had regular appointments.

The court heard McCreadie has previously been jailed for assault and robbery and his counsel Tim Niven-Smith said he acknowledged that a “substantial” custodial sentence was inevitable in his case.