A heart surgeon has gone on trial accused of stalking a young porter while he was working at the north-east’s flagship hospital.
Nishan Fernando, a registrar at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, is accused of engaging in a course of conduct which is alleged to have terrified Shonagh Cunningham over a period of three months after their “intimate relationship” turned sour.
The 38-year-old denies the offence, which is alleged to have taken place been December 2012 and February last year, and claims she “fabricated” the allegations after he dumped her for another woman.
Yesterday, Miss Cunningham, 22, broke down in tears as she told the court that during their short time together Fernando had “knocked every ounce of self confidence” out of her.
She said he made her feel “worthless and like a second class citizen”.
She said after they separated she tried to remain civil as they both worked at ARI.
However, she claimed that shortly after the split he started to intimidate her by following her around the hospital, turning up at her regular bus stop and appearing in a club when she was on a night out.
She said Fernando would often appear in the area used by theatre staff when he was not operating that day. She said he would do this around five to ten times a day.
Miss Cunningham claimed that when he did show up without reason, he would just stare at her, making her feel uncomfortable.
She said that this would rekindle her feelings of low self esteem, which she said were caused by the way Fernando treated her during their relationship.
She said: “I found him to be quite controlling. Almost dictating to me how I should behave and act. He had a few issues about how I was with other people.
“There was respect issues. He said that I was disrespectful to him and he would treat me like a second class citizen.
“He just felt that the way I behaved was an unacceptable way to behave. He felt like he was above me and put me down and would continually call me names.”
Miss Cunningham added that after they broke up, when the stalking started, she became scared of him and asked her colleagues to accompany her so she was not left alone with him at any point.
She said: “I started to notice that he was appearing more frequently wherever I was. There was no direct verbal contact but there was a lot of passing by, deep stares and smirking.
“There were points he was a little too close standing next to me. It was too close for comfort.”
The court heard that on Valentine’s Day last year, Miss Cunningham had to call the police after Fernando, of 20 Midstocket View, Aberdeen, followed her on to a bus which was travelling from the hospital to the Union Square shopping centre.
She said that they were the only two people onboard and she could hear him talking about her mother on his phone.
Miss Cunningham said this scared her so she called the non-emergency police helpline and was told to inform the bus driver what had happened.
The court heard she was asked to stay on the bus until Fernando had left and to wait until the police arrived.
She said as the surgeon left the bus he turned round and stared at her from inside the shopping centre.
The court heard a number of the alleged incidents were recorded by Miss Cunningham in her diary, which was used as a production in court yesterday.
She said she would write things down when she became increasingly scared or if she felt down.
On one occasion she wrote: “Keeps staring, walking past me, makes me feel small, pathetic, like he was laughing at me.”
Next to this she had a section labelled “mood” where she wrote: “Very low, pathetic, struggling to cope. Don’t know how much more I can take.”
However, representing the cardiothoracic surgeon, solicitor David Sutherland said that the diary entries had been “fabrications” and “exaggerations” and added in at later dates.
He said: “Your evidence is just an exaggeration. There was no staring and there was nothing unsavoury and its all fabrication on your part.”
The trial, before Sheriff Kenneth Stewart, was adjourned until November.