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Getaway driver jailed for three years after gangland machete attack

Spindrift Joshua Stewart - a man in his early 20s with brown hair, dark eyes and a short beard. He is looking at the camera and there are trees and bushes in the background. He is wearing a black top.Spindrift
Joshua Stewart was jailed at the High Court in Glasgow

A man who admitted driving the getaway car in a gangland machete attack has been jailed for three years and eight months.

Joshua Stewart, 21 from Bannockburn was part of a group that targeted David McMillan on Pitcairn Grove in Edinburgh as part of an ongoing feud.

McMillan, an associate of drug dealer Mark Richardson, was treated for cuts to his head and a fractured skull after the attack last May

Jailing Stewart the High Court in Glasgow, Judge Lady Drummond said the attack was "planned, serious and violent".

The court heard that McMillan survived the hit, in part due to a security guard at his home stepping in to help.

Police tape outside a suburban home with a paved driveway. A police car is parked on the corner and a forensics officers kneels examining a patch of ground.
Forensic officers carried out inquiries in Pitcairn Grove in Edinburgh after the attack

Prosecutor Samantha Brown told how Stewart took several accomplices in a Land Rover Discovery to the home of McMillan on May 22, 2025.

All of those in the car - other than the driver - were wearing balaclavas.

The Land Rover was seen driving past, turning around before stopping outside McMillan's family home.

Three people got out of the vehicle with machetes while Stewart remained inside the car.

Footage shown at the hearing showed the confrontation before McMillan was repeatedly hit with the weapons.

The attackers then returned to the vehicle and drove away.

The court heard that McMillan declined to provide a statement to police.

Stewart was arrested as part of Operation Portaledge - the police operation set up in response to the gang violence across Scotland's central belt from Glasgow to Edinburgh, which started making headlines in March last year.

More than 60 people have been arrested through the operation.

The gangland feud has led to assaults, shootings and fire bombings across the east and west of Scotland.

Defence Lawyer Lorenzo Alonzi, said Stewart became involved in organised crime to do a to a drug debt.

He said: "With that background, he was taken advantage of by these people. He was not aware there was going to be the level of violence that there was.

"The gravity of what happened was not apparent until it was happening. He was in way over his head."

The court heard that Stewart has a previous conviction for violence and had been on bail.

He pleaded guilty to working with unknown others to severely injury and permanently disfigure McMillan to the danger of his life.

The judge said Stewart was "genuinely remorseful" and recognised the harm he caused.

The sentence was reduced from five-and-a-half years due to his guilty plea.