A north-east firefighter has accused his estranged wife of threatening to claim he had raped her and have his children taken away.
Alan Purse and Katie Purse, who both work for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, were married for seven years and have three children.
She is now on trial accused of persistently messaging and threatening him between February and December 2015 after leaving the marital home in Newmachar.
And yesterday Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard numerous recordings Mr Purse had taken on his phone of her alleged threats against him.
During one from December 2015, she told him he had to finish with his new partner.
She said: “You won’t be able to get on with your life, you will have been accused of being a rapist.”
He later said: “You are blackmailing me, do you admit that?”
She replies: “I admit that.”
In other recordings she said he would lose his job and access to his children and be forced to pay her £100 per week in child maintenance.
She also threatened to go into his work station while shifts were being changed over and claim he had abused her.
Fiscal depute Karen Dow said: “It could be suggested that this is not stalking, it is just the break-up of a marriage.”
He replied: “I have left her, according to her she had met the man of her dreams, she had got everything she wanted, we had agreed the times I would get the children, I wanted to be left alone.
“It went on for months and months.”
Ms Dow asked: “Were you ever spoken to by the police about allegation of rape?”
He said he was questioned after Purse got the letter charging her with threatening him but the case had never been live.
Ms Dow then asked: “Both of your phones were seized by the police, they found 42 recorded calls from Katie Purse to you but found 100 calls from you to her, can you explain that?”
He said: “I don’t know if I can explain it, I was trying to sell the house she had bought a house, she constantly wanted updates.
“I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, if I didn’t answer she said me not having my phone with me was proof I was a bad dad.”
Purse, whose address was given as Woodside Terrace in Ellon, denies the charge against her.
The trial, before Sheriff Charlotte Coutts, continues.
