Teenage dad guilty of assault in Polmont YOI after serving time for attempted murder

Billy Stewart was just 16 when he joined five others to punch, kick and stamp on victim Rhys Reynolds during a horror attack in Musselburgh, East Lothian, back in 2018.

The vicious gang left Mr Reynolds, then 26, with a series of horrific injuries – including 35 facial fractures, bleeding on the brain and multiple stab wounds.

Stewart was sentenced to an extended 10-year jail term for his part in the offence, which was reduced to five years following an appeal.

While serving this reduced sentence inside a children’s unit near Glasgow, Stewart began a relationship with a vulnerable teenage girl who subsequently fell pregnant with his child.

Stewart, now aged 19, was released from custody on May 6 this year but was arrested just four weeks later in connection with an assault on an inmate at Polmont YOI last year.

Appearing from custody at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Wednesday, Stewart pleaded guilty to the attack within the facility which he committed on June 11, 2021.

Sheriff Derek Livingston jailed Stewart, of Prestonpans, East Lothian, for four months.

The Care Inspectorate launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Stewart fathering a child while he was being detained at the secure unit on the outskirts of Glasgow in June 2020.

The unit houses children aged between 11 and 18 with social, emotional and behavioural issues from across the UK.

A Care Inspectorate spokesman said: “We were notified of an incident of concern in June and have been in close contact. We are satisfied that the service has investigated this appropriately.”

Stewart and his gang were jailed for a total of 47 years following a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh for the brutal attack on Mr Reynolds in Musselburgh on December 31, 2018.

The six thugs subsequently had their sentences reduced following successful appeals for the assault on Mr Reynolds that Judge Gordon Liddle had branded as “cowardly and vicious”.