A notorious Angus paedophile who tormented his latest victim to the brink of suicide has been jailed and banned from unsupervised contact with children for 15 years.
Serial child sex offender John Johnstone showed no emotion as he was locked up for 30 months.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard how in May 2020, Johnstone used teen chat site “Mylol” to engage with a 14-year-old schoolboy from England.
The boy’s full name, age and general location were visible while vile Johnstone chatted under the guise of “Summer”, a 13-year-old girl.
Johnstone’s chat with the boy was initially general but when the conversation moved to Skype, it became sexual.
The boy agreed to send him a naked image of himself.
In return, Johnstone sent him two Category A videos and a Category B image.
The scarring conversations lasted until late July that year, when police raided the 45-year-old’s home in Warddykes Road, Arbroath.
Protecting public safety
Johnstone was given a 30-month sentence, backdated to April last year, when he returned to the dock on Monday.
He will also be subject to a 15-year Sexual Offences Prevention Order, which prohibits him – among other things – from owning more than one internet device, having unsupervised contact with under 18s and entering relationships without the express consent of police or authority.
Sheriff Paul Brown imposed this order to “protect public safety”.
History of deviancy
Johnstone was placed on the sex offenders register at Forfar Sheriff Court in June 2019 when he was caught with 28 child abuse files.
Then, in November 2020, he was convicted of another sex offence.
Johnstone also has convictions for distributing indecent images, taking or making the sick files, possession of extreme porn and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
The dark web paedophile was jailed for 40 months after he built a secret den in his home to store the homemade vile haul of material he distributed worldwide.
He had taken photos of himself carrying out sex acts and posing next to a sleeping girl then bragged to social workers he’d done no “actual harm” because she was asleep when he abused her.
The images were shared on paedophile sites and the farm worker had asked others to send similar material.
A specialist police unit’s investigation snared Johnstone after discovering the files were uploaded from an Arbroath address.
In January 2021, a sentence of unpaid work order made in Forfar in 2019 was converted into a concurrent seven-month sentence after breaching that order.
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