November 2004 Gruesome twosome unmasked THIS is the manipulating sex-beast who brainwashed his young ‘bride’ into helping him abuse vulnerable girls. Today – with the support of their victims – we can unmask Austin Johnston and his common-law wife, Erica Sloan-Johnston formerly of Ballykinlar, after they were jailed last week for a litany of sex-offences. The gruesome twosome, both from Co Down, admitted the offences against four young girls, between October 2000 and November 2002, at an earlier hearing at Downpatrick Crown Court. Last week, Johnston was described in court as a “controlling and manipulative” figure with “no respect for moral sexual boundaries”. He was jailed for five years for his grim abuse. Sloan-Johnston, who was “married” to Johnston – 18 years her senior – in a ceremony conducted by controversial cleric, Bishop Pat Buckley, was jailed for 18 months. She will serve a further 18 months probation, after admitting three counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault. The 26-year-old broke down in the dock, when she was told she was going to jail. The court was told how she had “facilitated” the horrific abuse carried out by her lover, but had not been present when he attacked any of the four girls, aged between 11 and 15. When Johnston was alone with the girls – one of whom he was accused of trying to ‘groom’ for abuse – he carried out serious acts of sexual assault, that cannot be described here. Sloan had met Johnston, now 44, when she was just 16 and shortly after her mother had died. A short time later, she moved into the home he shared with his now-estranged wife. And Johnston soon began having a sexual relationship with the then teenager – whom he later “married” in a bizarre blessing ceremony four years ago – right under his lawful wife’s nose. Johnston – branded “lazy and controlling at his trial – dominated the young Sloan-Johnston, even forcing her to change his socks and to empty bottles of urine when he would not leave his chair to use the toilet. It was against this background of domination that she “facilitated” Johnston’s depraved sexual abuse. Andrew Donaldson QC, representing Sloan-Johnston, told the court that she “was more or less a slave in the house” and was “at his beck and call”. “He had her under his control and she had to do his bidding,” he added. Johnston showed no emotion as he sat in a wheelchair, listening to graphic details of his abuse being read out in court. Jailing the pair, Mr Justice Morgan said that Sloan-Johnston had “been no more than a child, when she came under the influence” of her partner-in-crime and that Johnston had abused a “multiplicity of victims” who had all been left “deeply affected”. He added that he was “manipulative and a real danger to young children”. Both were ordered to sign the PSNI’s Sex Offender Register.