A fish factory worker who told his ex-partner he “wouldn’t go away” until he got his dog and money back has been fined and told to keep away from her.
Ian Ronald left his former girlfriend so scared by turning up at her house and texting her that she locked herself in the backroom when she thought he was nearby, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
The 58-year-old stalker texted the woman saying “watch this space” and threatened “I won’t go away ’til you pay £2,500 that you owe me”.
Fiscal depute Andrew McMann said that, between August 25 and September 7 last year, Ronald sent the woman various messages and visited her Aberdeen home uninvited.
Locked herself away in fear
He said on one occasion the woman received a phone call from a friend to say she’d spotted Ronald in a car near her home.
“In fear, the complainer locked herself in the bathroom whilst remaining on the phone to her friend,” the fiscal said. “About 20 minutes later she returned to her living room where the accused was observed to have knocked on her window.
“Following this, he left. The complainer then received a text message from him which read ‘I won’t go away until you pay £2,500 that you owe me.
“‘I’m going to take my dog back. Watch this space. Over every day and catch you walking it.'”
Just over a week later, Ronald was spotted in the woman’s garden, again uninvited, and police were called and he was arrested.
Ronald, of Derry Avenue, Aberdeen, admitted a stalking charge.
Defence agent Ian Woodward-Nutt said the part-time fish processing worker had been in a relationship with the woman for 13 years before Ronald ended things three months before the offending took place.
‘He missed the animal’
He said the matters were “compounded by the fact she had kept his dog”.
“At the time that the parties separated, the complainer owed Mr Ronald a significant sum of money. She doesn’t dispute that she owed him that money, yet his repeated requests for her to return that sum were simply ignored,” the solicitor said.
“Mr Ronald became increasingly frustrated by her reaction but he now accepts that he dealt with the situation in a manner that was entirely inappropriate.
“Indeed, he had conducted himself in a manner which was distressing for the complainer. He behaved in a way which was entirely uncharacteristic.
“Matters were compounded by the fact she had kept his dog. He missed the animal.”
Sheriff Lesley Johnston said she accepted this was an “isolated incident” and that Ronald had “acted on impulse and over a dispute involving ownership of the family dog”.
She fined Ronald £245 and handed him a two-year non-harassment order.
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