Ashley McGovern: Woman who abandoned nine-year-old boy in East Lothian woods spared jail

A woman who abandoned a nine-year-old boy in woodland and claimed he had gone missing has been spared jail.

Ashley McGovern, 31, drove the boy to Brock Wood, near Dunbar in East Lothian, on 9 September 2022 and left him overnight without suitable clothing or shelter and with no food or water.

The boy suffered a number of injuries, with a judge describing the incident as a "terrifying ordeal".

After abandoning the boy, McGovern repeatedly lied to police and members of the public about where she had been that day and when she had last seen him.

Before taking him to the woods, McGovern had also exposed him to drugs and alcohol.

At the High Court in Glasgow in November, McGovern pleaded guilty to charges of wilful ill-treatment and neglect of a child likely to cause unnecessary suffering and harm.

She also admitted one charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

At the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, she was sentenced to a three-year community payback order, ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work, and required to undergo regular "progress reviews".

Judge Lord Young said: "That must have been a terrifying ordeal for the child."

He told McGovern he had remanded her in custody following her guilty plea last month in the expectation he would be handing down a prison sentence.

However he said in light of information provided since then, he was "persuaded" there were special circumstances in her case that "justify a non-custodial sentence as a direct alternative to custody".

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Lord Young said McGovern had suffered from poor mental health for a number of years, and this "worsened" during the COVID pandemic, leading her to turn to drugs.

He also said she had demonstrated "genuine remorse" for her actions, and that since the offence she had "weaned" herself off drugs, which he said was "greatly" to her credit.

Lord Young noted that McGovern had been "unable to explain" why she left the child in the woods, but accepted it was "probably" the result of the state her life was in due to her drug addiction.

Earlier, defence lawyer John Scullion KC cited a report from one of the specialists who interviewed McGovern while she was being held on remand, saying: "The accused recalls a sense of panic and describing something flipped in her mind that day.

"She described the decisions she made thereafter as being out of character."