Seeing the light through a prison cell window

The Reverend Johnston is not the first person to find God in the confines of a prison.

One of the most high profile conversions was that of former Conservative MP Jonathan Aitken, right, who was jailed for 18 months in 1999 after he was convicted of perjury. He said later that he found himself turning increasingly to spirituality: "In adversity you can often find, people often do and I did, a gateway to the deeper faith and as I grew in penitence and faith and trust in God definitely huge inner changes took place."

Following his release, Mr Aitken enrolled as a Christian theology student at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University.

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Killer James Nelson made history as the first convicted murderer to become an ordained Kirk minister in 1984.

Aged 24, he had beaten his mother in 1969 at their Lanarkshire home. He died in 2005, aged 60.