Here are the people who were imprisoned from Edinburgh and the Lothians in June.
The criminals convicted in June included drug smugglers, rapists and paedophiles. Among them, a former police officer was jailed for 16 years for the raping a teenage girl more than 30 years ago. James Boyle, 69, was a serving officer with Cambridgeshire Police when the offending happened. He was working as a criminal defence barrister in Edinburgh at the time of his arrest.
5. Sean McGovern
Sean McGovern, 39, who had absconded from HMP Castle Huntly, Dundee, on Sunday, 11 June, 2023 has been traced and returned to prison. Before his escape, McGovern was serving a sentence at Castle Huntly, near Dundee, for dealing heroin and for firing a shotgun outside the Gauntlet Bar in Edinburgh’s Broomhouse area in 2008. Photo: sub
6. Brian Johnstone
Brian Johnstone contacted an online account which he believed belonged to a 14-year-old child named Sophie and began sending her messages of a sexual nature. Johnstone asked the girl to meet up with him on several occasions and repeatedly asked her to send him indecent images of herself over a two week period in May 2021. But the 61-year-old was snared after it emerged the child’s account was being run by a paedophile hunter group decoy who was attempting to catch online predators. The hunter group confronted Johnstone at his former home in Musselburgh, East Lothian, and the police were soon alerted to the disturbance and he was arrested. Johnstone, currently of Kingcrave Avenue, Maybole, Ayrshire, was jailed for 163 days and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for five years. Following his arrest Johnstone was forced to flee the area after angry residents staged several protests outside his flat (pictured) at the town’s Watts Close and at nearby council buildings. Photo: Sub
7. James Boyle
A former police officer turned criminal defence barrister was jailed on June 26 for 16 years for the rape and indecent assault of a teenage girl more than 30 years ago. James Boyle, now aged 69, was a serving officer with Cambridgeshire Police when the offending happened between 1986 and 1991. The defendant, of Sunbury Place, Edinburgh, was working as a criminal defence barrister at the time of his arrest. Judge Philip Grey said Boyle told his victim, at the time of a rape when she was under the age of 16: "I know this is wrong but I just can't help myself." Sentencing at Cambridge Crown Court (pictured) the judge said that Boyle had "evaded responsibility for such serious offending" for more than 30 years. He said the defendant had "lived a lie" and that none of his "professional accolades" would have been available to him if he had been convicted at the time. Photo: Sub
8. Craig Dineen, David McMillan and Andrew Mullin
Three men caught running a drugs smuggling operation were jailed in Edinburgh in June. Craig Dineen, David McMillan and Andrew Mullin transported thousands of pounds worth of cannabis from England to Scotland. The men, who have links to serious organised crime, were jailed for a total of 12 years and nine months. At the High Court in Edinburgh (pictured), Dineen, 30, of Renfrew, was imprisoned for six years. McMillan, 40, of Glasgow, was sentenced to five years and three months, while Mullin, 46, also of Glasgow, was jailed for 18 months. McMillan’s brother Craig, 36, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for drugs offences and a fourth gang member, Stephen Hamilton, 31, was given a community payback order, demanding he carry out 225 hours of unpaid work. Photo: Stock