Edinburgh gangster who fired shotgun outside city pub commits crime in prison

An Edinburgh drug baron who absconded from prison last year has been given a six-month sentence after being found with a phone behind bars.

Sean 'Lugs' McGovern appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court last month charged with having a personal communication device in jail. The case initially called in March and was continued to April 18 without plea.

McGovern's sentence was discounted from nine months to six after being found with the device at HMP Shotts on October 2, 2023.

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In June 2023, we reported how the Edinburgh drug baron and gangster was warned his life was in danger before fleeing custody at the prison and going on the run for a week. He later handed himself in to HMP Shotts.

Shortly after McGovern escaped, Police Scotland issued a missing person appeal and warned the public not to approach him and said the thug has connections to Edinburgh. Days later, armed officers were spotted combing a Midlothian town during their search for the 40-year-old.

In March 2024 McGovern admitted absconding from prison and was jailed McGovern for 10 months to run alongside his existing sentence.

In 2016, McGovern was targeted in a horrifying slashing in Edinburgh's city centre while about to return to prison after home leave. Two hitmen set upon him with blades, witnessed by a Daily Record reporter and photographer, before fleeing in a Skoda.

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David Togher, the right-hand man of Edinburgh cocaine kingpin Mark Richardson, 36, was later jailed for six years for his role in the ambush.

McGovern was sentenced to 17 years jail after firing two rounds from a shotgun outside the Gauntlet Bar, in Broomhouse, Edinburgh, in 2008. He got six years and nine months for the gun attack and 10 years for running a heroin empire in the capital.

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