Johnny is a native of Northern Ireland and began his policing career in 1985 when he joined the Royal Ulster Constabulary serving in the border city of Londonderry. He later transferred to the police service in Scotland and served with Strathclyde Police. During that time he discharged a number of roles in various ranks finally as a Detective Chief Superintendent and Head of Special Branch for Strathclyde and Regional Coordinator for Special Branch for all of Scotland on counter terrorist and extremism matters. Amongst other things he has managed several high profile counter terrorist enquiries and was the on scene commander at the Glasgow Airport attack and was responsible for both crises and consequence management issues during and following that attack.
In 2006, Johnny became a member of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland after being appointed as Deputy Director General of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) – effectively at that time Scotland’s national crime squad focused solely on tackling serious and organised crime. He was also the Scottish Police lead for Covert Policing and coordinated the activity of all 8 Scottish police forces and the SCDEA against organised crime as chair of the National Tactical Tasking and Coordinating Forum. During his time at the SCDEA he oversaw and coordinated a major national covert operation targeted against on line child sex offenders. He was responsible as Director General of SCDEA for finalisng the transfer of the SCDEA and all its capabilities into the newly created Police Service of Scotland which started in April 2013.
He was seconded to the UKs National Crime Agency (NCA) in June 2013 and was Deputy Director of the Organised Crime Command before successfully competing for and being appointed to the role of Director of the Child Exploitation Command (CEOP) in December 2013. CEOP’s role is to reduce the risk faced by children from on line sexual exploitation and is the national hub working in concert with all 45 police territorial forces in the United Kingdom. In addition Johnny is the UK’s representative on the Virtual Global Task Force focused on improving the international response to the threat posed by child sexual abuse along with other police colleagues.
