A vicious thug who attacked a woman with a machete, severing tendons in his wrist and ankle, after bursting into her home has been caged for 11 years.
William Kemp, 32, and two accomplices burst into the home in Lanark, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, at around 4am on May 2, 2022. Victim Ashley Reilly tried to protect herself by using a wardrobe as a shield in a desperate bid to keep herself away from the thugs.
The then 35-year-old was slashed repeatedly and suffered gruesome injuries. Jurors at the High Court, in Glasgow, heard two children were inside the home during the attack and were left traumatised. Kemp was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment, having been convicted of attempted murder.
Ashley was slashed repeatedly and suffered gruesome injuries (UGC)
Ashley Reilly tried to protect herself by using a wardrobe as a shield (UGC)The hearing was told Kemp had been jailed on seven previous occasions, all for assault, the last time being in 2021 following an attack on someone who was also in their own home. Kemp had been released just five weeks before the murder attempt. Judge Douglas Brown said he noted the thug continued to protest his innocence for what was “obviously a planned attack.”
“You broke in by smashing a glass door panel,” he told Kemp. “After she had tried to barricade the stairs with a wardrobe to stop you getting in, you threatened to kill her and repeatedly struck her. This caused her severe injury. Had she not received urgent medical attention, she would have died and you would now be facing a charge of murder.”
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Judge Brown said he had read a harrowing victim impact statement that detailed how Miss Reilly has been affected by the ordeal. “She now has only limited use of her right hand and now requires the assistance of a carer for the most basic of everyday tasks.
Miss Reilly has been severely affected by the ordeal (Daily Record WS)"She is now longer able to walk any significant distance due to continuing pain in left leg and foot. There are significant psychological problems as do the children who were present during the attack. She anticipates being on medication for the rest of her life."
Kemp will be supervised for three years following his release. John McCutcheon, 24, and Dylan Harding, 21, also faced the same allegation but jurors returned not proven verdicts on each following last month’s trial. At the time, Reilly spoke about how the attacks had severed tendons in her wrist and ankle, leaving large open wounds.
"They were swinging the machete about, up and down at me. I did not even realise I had been hurt,” she recalled in 2022. “I was shouting ‘police were coming’ and they ran off. I was just thinking of the kids. I would have died defending them."
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