Day I came face to face with dad’s killer
Mum of three wasn’t told murderer had been released
A TERRIFIED mum told how she came face-to-face with her father’s killer 12 years after he beat her dad to death in a pub.
Nichola McDonald, 30, froze in fear as she spotted Billy Johnston Jnr walking the streets when she thought he was still in jail.
He’d been released the day before but the authorities failed to alert Nichola in time.
After several more sightings of Johnston by her family, Nichola fears he is living in the same Edinburgh neighbourhood as her.
But police officers told her they can’t to disclose his address, leaving Nichola afraid he could appear at any time.
Johnston and Charles Woolard, both 29 at the time, were jailed for life in December 2005 for the brutal murder of Nichola’s dad, Grant, earlier the same year.
Dad-of-two Grant, 38, was punched and kicked to death as he lay unconscious next to a pool table during a brawl in the Waverley Inn in the city’s Burdiehouse area.
Unemployed Johnston and hairdresser Woolard were sentenced to serve a minimum of 12 years over the attack, which was caught on CCTV.
Mum-of-three Nichola first saw Johnston back out of jail in December 2017 when she was driving her children home.
She said: “He came running up to the car and grabbed my arm through the window, screaming, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry’.
“I just drove off, shaking. Two of my kids were in the back and they were screaming. They knew who he was and heard people talking. They knew he killed my dad.
“I saw him at lunchtime and the recorded delivery letter of his release came the next day, on Christmas Eve.”
Nichola’s ordeal was followed by several occasions on which she and her family have encountered the killer.
One, in the city’s Liberton area, saw Nichola and her boyfriend Michael bump into Johnston, who was with his girlfriend. The girlfriend later allegedly sent a horrific Facebook message to one of her family members. Part of the message read: “He’s just done 12 years for your junkie uncle with Scotland’s hardest men.” Nichola said her aunt was given a warning by police over alleged threatening behaviour after telling Johnston’s girlfriend to stay away from her family after a chance meeting in a city shop. Nichola said that incident was reported to officers at Wester Hailes police station, leaving her fearing Johnston and his partner must’ve moved into her local area. She said: “I asked the officers whether he was staying nearby and they wouldn’t tell me. That was last month. “He could be living round the corner from me. His girlfriend is from Wester Hailes. They lived in the Gilmerton area after Johnston got out but they’ve moved. I don’t know where he is.”
Nichola said police told her Johnston has no conditions to stay away from the family in the terms of his release.
They were left devastated after the brutal murder of Grant, described as a “lovable rogue”.
His mum Pat, 75, had to leave her home in the wake of his killing as the area held too many memories.
Nichola’s sister, Cheryl, 27, raced to her dad’s side on the night of the attack as paramedics tried to save him.
Cheryl, who was only 13 at the time, said: “I saw him lying on the floor and so I tried to go and get him up, but obviously I couldn’t.
“I don’t think it ever goes away and this just makes it worse to move on from.” Nichola, mum to Michael, 10, Lewis, six, and Kiera, five, says she is now having to live life looking over her shoulder.
A spokesman for Scottish Prison Service (SPS) said the McDonald family were signed up to be notified of Johnston’s release but not his parole hearing.
The letter only arrived the day after his release because the Parole Board for Scotland set him free immediately after his hearing.
The SPS spokesman added: “I can confirm that we operate a victim notification scheme and we do everything we can to keep them appraised of those for whom they have registered.”
A Parole Board spokesman said: “Where victims are registered with the Victim Notification Scheme (Part 1) they will be informed of a prisoner’s release by the Scottish Prison Service acting on behalf of Scottish ministers.
“Licence conditions set by the board are required to be lawful, proportionate and necessary.”
I asked where he stays but police can’t tell me
NICHOLA McDONALD DESCRIBES JOHNSTON ORDEAL