The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Prisoner’s threatening phone calls from his cell
COURT: Man given further 42 months in jail after catalogue of fear and abuse
A convicted robber, dumped by his girlfriend while he was in prison, bombarded her with threatening phone calls and had her car tyres slashed.
Jay Johnstone, 28, called his victim up to 30 times a day and threatened to throw acid in her mother’s face.
He used a mobile phone stashed in a light fitting in his cell, as well as prison landlines, to call her and her parents repeatedly.
Johnstone, who was jailed in 2013 for robbing a Kirkcaldy shop with an accomplice who wielded an imitation pistol, sent a friend video footage of someone slashing the woman’s tyres.
He had been recalled to prison from an extended sentence and was serving time in HMP Shotts and Barlinnie when the offences were committed between November 18 2018 and July 26 last year.
Appearing at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court from Glenochil Prison, Johnstone was sentenced to a further 42 months in jail.
The court heard that he and the mother-of-two already knew each other and began a five-year relationship during his earlier period in prison but she ended it in November 2018.
Procurator fiscal depute Claire Bremner said: “From that time the accused continually telephoned (her) on her mobile telephone. This was on a daily basis.”
She added: “He would call her in excess of 30 times a day. That figure would increase at weekends.”
When she refused to reconcile with Johnstone, Ms Bremner said he would become angry and make threats, accusing her of cheating on him.
Johnstone would phone his victim’s parents when he was unable to reach her and her father would unplug their phone.
On January 18 when the woman went to collect her children from school she noticed three of her tyres had been cut.
Four days later, prison officers were instructed to search Johnstone’s cell and found a mobile phone in a light fitting of the toilet area.
Defence solicitor Martin Maguire said Johnstone had struggled emotionally after returning to prison and being parted from his girlfriend.
He said Johnstone had supported her from the income he had and wanted the car, for which he paid from money bequeathed to him by a relative, returned to his sister.
Johnstone admitted engaging in a course of conduct which caused fear and alarm to the woman and her parents.
He also admitted possessing mobile phones at both Shotts and Barlinnie prisons during the same period.
Sentencing Johnstone, Sheriff James Williamson also granted a nonharassment order for the three victims for five years.
Johnstone was sentenced to four years and eight months in December 2013 for robbing Malkha’s News and Wine Store in Birnam Road with Sonny Gibson.
Shop owner Fazal Sindhu told at the time how he feared for his life as he stared down the barrel of a gun pointed at him by Gibson as the two masked robbers emptied his till.
A Scottish Prison Service spokeswoman said: “The possession of a mobile phone in prison is a criminal offence.
“If we receive information to suggest that prisoners are in possession of such devices we will take all appropriate action and report it to the relevant authorities.
“A comprehensive range of robust security measures are in place to prevent the introduction of contraband into our prisons and we continue to make significant investment in the development of new technology and staff training to detect, deter and reduce the availability and supply of illicit items.”