A violent sex offender who hired two Aberdeen thugs to terrorise a family while behind bars was today jailed for nine years.
Josh Neil was an HMP Grampian inmate when he orchestrated fire attacks on homes with the promise of payment and demanded video footage of the blazes as proof they were carried out.
Four separate attacks were carried out at addresses in Penicuik, in Midlothian, on Neil’s orders with two of them putting the lives of occupants, including young children, in danger.
Stephen Barry and Ty Hyland, both from Aberdeen, were part of a gang that struck after the mum made serious physical and sexual accusations against a man.
A judge told Neil at the High Court in Edinburgh that if the crimes were intended to scare a key witness in the case from giving evidence then it failed.
Neil was subsequently convicted of serious abuse against a woman and jailed for six years and ordered to be under supervision for a further three years.
Lord Young said he was assessed in a background report as posing a very high risk of offending and even in custody had taken steps to terrorise others.
Jail cell threats
Neil, 25, earlier admitted acting with others while he was in Peterhead’s HMP Grampian and Barlinnie Prison, in Glasgow, to wilfully set fire to two homes in Penicuik in November 2022 and May last year.
He further pled guilty to disorderly conduct in November 2022 while acting with others when an accelerant was poured over the door of a house.
Neil also admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice between December last year and May this year at Greenock prison by sending threatening letters to potential witnesses warning of violence against them and their families.
Police arrested some of those carrying out the campaign of terror orchestrated by Neil and seized mobile phones which showed contact with another prisoner in HMP Grampian.
A phone was found in his cell, revealing he and Neil were involved in planning the offences, including payments to be made and a requirement for video proof of the fires before Neil would pay up.
The phone also showed footage of one of the offences being carried out with accelerant being squirted on a door which was set on fire.
Nine-year sentence to be served after current one
Defence counsel John Scullion KC said Neil had been diagnosed with ADHD and Tourette’s syndrome.
He told the court: “The offences in this case are extremely serious. They are aggravated by their context, all of which the accused acknowledges and accepts.”
He said: “Inevitably, the punishment for these offences will require to be a very significant period of imprisonment.”
The defence counsel said that Neil’s earliest release date from the prison term he is currently serving was in December 2027.
Lord Young told Neil that his nine-year jail term would be served following his present period of imprisonment.
Neil was placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely following his earlier conviction.