A sex offender who threatened to go to the home of a police officer has been fined £750.
Darren Napier, 28, shouted at the member of the offender management team while she was off duty and with her children 11 days following the threat, Oban Sheriff Court heard yesterday.
Following a trial Napier was found guilty of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards the officer.
Sheriff Patrick Hughes said: “This is a particularly alarming matter. Off duty police officers should feel safe in their own homes or walking the street with their children.”
The first incident took place on April 22 when Napier, who stayed in Oban at the time but is now of Angus Crescent, Fort William, arrived at Oban Police Station.
Constable Beata Baldyga, who was on duty, said she was aware he was a monitored sex offender and the subject of a sexual offences prevention order, which meant he must inform police if he would not be at a particular address.
She said: “He said he was going to Dunoon to stay that night. I said I would check the conditions. I was told at no point was he allowed to go to Dunoon that night.
“He said if I didn’t sort it he would go to the officer’s house and sort it out himself. He was annoyed and angry.
“I told him not to go to her house. It was a very inappropriate comment.”
On May 3 the offender management team officer was walking her dog in Oban’s Station Square with a friend and three children, when she saw Napier speaking to a taxi driver.
She had been informed about his earlier threat and as a result patrols had been stepped up in the area around her home.
She said: “As I walked passed he started shouting at me. It was intimidating in the context of my previous dealings with him.
“I was concerned about it. I knew I would have to inform my work on the back of him saying he was going to come to my house.”
Napier, who pleaded not guilty, did not give evidence.
His solicitor Joanna Mortimer said that the phrases, which he accepted saying, would not give rise to fear and alarm.
Finding him guilty, the sheriff said it was “all about context”.
