Scotland's 'soft-touch' justice let man stab woman to death while tagged for an earlier knife attack on her

From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026 · last updated 9 October 2026.

Lee Inglis, 39, was subject to a curfew and electronic tag for a previous knife assault on Stacey Hogg, 35, when he killed the mother-of-three at her home in Hawick in June. In a police interview, Inglis said his intention had been to behead her but that he found it 'too difficult'. He entered a guilty plea to murder at the High Court in Edinburgh on Friday, having violated a non-harassment order protecting Hogg on two separate occasions after disfiguring her face in an October 2024 knife attack.

Stephen Kerr, Scottish Tory justice spokesman, said a violent offender like Inglis 'should never have been free to offend again'.

Scottish Women's Aid chief executive Dr Marsha Scott called for a 'hard look' at community disposals handed out as domestic abuse sentences, warning too many dangerous men slip through.

Inglis's case is the latest in a pattern of killings by violent men freed early or given community orders — Robert Sabat murdered Dickiesha Nurse in London just days after his own prison release last year.