Former Para gets 5 years for gun raid on city home

AN EX-PARA was jailed for five years for subjecting a woman to a terrifying gun-point ordeal.

His bouncer accomplice was given a four-year sentence - because he had a clean record.

An earlier trial heard how the two, wearing boiler suits and stocking masks, ambushed Diane Bouwer in her property developer boyfriend’s Edinburgh home.

She thought she was going to be raped, but instead they demanded 20,000 before forcing her into a dark cupboard.

One man had a pistol and the other a stun gun.

Jason Davies, 34, of Kirkham, Lancashire, and bouncer Michael Chamberlain, 31, of Westhills, Aberdeenshire, were found guilty of abduction and attempted extortion.

The court heard that Davies had been slung out of the Parachute Regiment after a court-martial had found him guilty of grievous bodily harm and sentenced him to two years.

He also has convictions for an explosives offence, possessing ammunition and assault.

"I have noted that your ambitions have been thwarted by events and your early promise not fulfilled," said judge Lord Brodie, jailing him at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.

The trial heard how police raided Davies’ Lancashire home and found notes on a piece of paper which police said looked like planning "for a military operation or a crime".

Davies - known by the nickname Animal - denied it had anything to do with threatening Ms Bouwer, 42, or her boyfriend John Jeromson, 43. Davies claimed the plan was linked to a contract to work in Iraq.

Another man, security consultant John Lawson, 38, of Links Place, Port Seton, East Lothian, is also serving four years for his part in the affair, following an earlier trial.