A stalker who repeatedly turned up outside the home of his former colleague will now be under the supervision of the social work department.
Ellon man Neil Stephen, 59, terrified the woman by travelling to her Aberdeen property where he was seen staring through her windows on a number of occasions over two days.
Stephen, a joiner, was snared when the woman set up a motion detection camera and caught him prowling around outside her home on Park Road.
On one occasion, the woman stepped out of the bathroom with a towel around her to find Stephen outside her window, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard.
Woman set up motion detecting camera
Fiscal depute Stephanie Cardow told the court that on May 6 this year the woman was about to get changed when she turned and saw Stephen standing on the other side of the glass of her patio door.
“The accused was staring directly at her but walked away when she walked toward the patio door,” Mrs Cardow said.
The woman then set up her mobile phone to operate as a camera that would record whenever it detected movement.
At around 8.16pm the same night the camera captured a still image of Stephen outside the woman’s window.
Mrs Cardow stated: “The next day at around 8pm the complainer and a friend were in her living room when the accused walked past the window.
“He locked eyes with the witness and then quickly left the area.”
At 10am on May 8 the woman went out but left her mobile phone at home and set it to record.
When she returned at 6pm she checked the phone camera and found it had captured Stephen outside her property at around 3.30pm.
He was seen standing outside her living room window and looking into her home.
Appearing in the dock, Stephen pleaded guilty to one charge of engaging in a course of action that caused fear and alarm by loitering outside the woman’s house.
Neil Stephen had been living a ‘solitary and isolated life’
Defence agent Ian Woodward-Nutt told the court that his client had struggled since the loss of his wife 14 years ago and had been living a “fairly solitary and isolated life”.
“He formed a friendship with the complainer when they worked together but what happened was that he failed to read the signals thereafter,” he said.
“Mr Stephen was seeking company in his life and nothing more than that.
“He knows the behaviour shouldn’t have taken place and what he did will have alarmed this young lady.”
Sheriff Rory Bannerman described Stephen’s behaviour as “extremely worrying”.
“It must have been very concerning for this young woman,” he said.
Sentencing Stephen, of Western Avenue, Ellon, Sheriff Bannerman made him subject to a community payback order with supervision for 18 months.
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