Edinburgh crime: Drugs gang torturer Shaun McKinnon jailed for more than nine years

A vicious gangland figure who inflicted terror and torture on drug users as he carried out a lucrative narcotics trade has been jailed for nine years and 10 months.

Shaun McKinnon subjected two men to "waterboarding" using boiling water, leaving one victim feeling "unbelievable" pain.

He targeted the pair after "an arithmetical error" over drug sales left him believing that £750 worth of crack cocaine had been stolen.

McKinnon was previously cleared of the attempted murder of gunman Jamie Bain who shot dead his brother Alex at The Marmion pub in Edinburgh in 2006.

Shaun McKinnon ran a £2000-a-day 'drug slaves' operation from Forteviot House.

Sentencing him at the High Court in Edinburgh a judge told McKinnon, 35, that he had subjected indebted drug users to "an almost medieval form of forced labour".

Lord Harrower said: "Your directions were backed by threats of violence and acts of actual violence"

The judge said he had been prepared to deploy techniques of water torture "that cannot be tolerated in any civilised society.

McKinnon was made the subject of a Serious Crime Prevention Order for three years after his release.

Gunned down: McKinnon's boxing champion brother Alex.

He once instructed his henchmen to tape a man's hands behind his back in a flat at Forteviot House before he poured a kettle of hot water over his head.

The victim was ordered to lie on a coffee table in the shower and after a towel was put over his face and waterboarded which he said was "pure, pure, pure torture".

McKinnon told a second victim: "You're gonna have to get what he got." He was trussed with a belt and waterboarded before a kettle of hot water was poured over his back.

The court heard that the illegal drug trade overseen by McKinnon could have had a turnover of up to £1m.

Lord Harrower said: "The operation involved sourcing cocaine and heroin, Class A drugs, from cities throughout Great Britain."

Drugs were obtained from Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh for preparation, subdivision and sale in the capital.

McKinnon earlier admitted committing an offence aggravated by a connection of serious organised crime by organising the purchase, sale and supply of drugs and threatening three men and a woman and their families with violence and using violence against the men between January 1 in 2019 and July 23 in 2020.

He also admitted being concerned in the supply of heroin and cocaine.

The offences were committed in flats at Forteviot House, in Moredunvale Bank and Marytree House, at Craigour Green, in Edinburgh and the Castlemilk and Maryhill areas of Glasgow.

McKinnon, who has previous convictions for drugs and money laundering, acted as a dealer to drug users who were recruited into the supply operation.

Prosecutor Blair Speed said one witness estimated takings of up to £2000 a day, although that did not take into account larger deals that McKinnon took part in.

He said: "All four witnesses were directed by the accused to be concerned in the supply of cocaine and heroin to reduce their drug debts.

"The common theme was of threats being made against their lives and of the lives of family members. These threats were taken as being genuine and were sufficient to ensure that directions that the accused gave were followed without question.”

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