A husband who secretly tracked his wife’s movements using their children’s iPad has admitted carrying out a seven-month campaign of abuse.
Elgin Sheriff Court was told how Andrew Mackenzie became obsessed with his wife’s private life, following her in the street and checking her phone regularly.
Fiscal depute Victoria Silver said his behaviour started in October 2021 when his wife, a beautician, mixed up her appointments and he came home to find their Lossiemouth house in a mess.
The dad-of-two told her: “You don’t have a f****** clue what you’re doing. You call yourself a businesswoman?”
Followed her in the street
“She recalls being belittled by him and spoken to in a condescending manner,” the fiscal added. “And over a number of months, he would check her phone and read her messages.”
The 43-year-old became obsessed with her mobile phone usage and would forcibly take it from her hands and demand to know who she was calling.
The court heard how on one occasion witnesses saw her follow him from their home “hysterical and shaking” and in her pyjamas and barefoot after he snatched the phone from her.
Mackenzie also turned up numerous times in car parks and at shops when he would demand to know who she was speaking to on the phone.
“He later admitted to her that he had been using their children’s iPad to track where she was,” the fiscal added.
Cleaned out her bank account
The fiscal added that the wife’s friends notice a change in her behaviour, describing her as becoming “distant” during this time.
“They noted her receiving several phone calls from him when in her company asking where she was and who she was with,” Ms Silver said.
On another occasion, he accessed her bank account and cleared it out.
The final incident, in May this year, saw Mackenzie take his wife’s car keys and purse, which led to a “scuffle” that sent her fleeing to a neighbour’s house.
Mackenzie admitted a charge of domestic abuse that included 10 instances of controlling and aggressive behaviour.
‘Mental health was poor’
Defence agent Grant Dalglish said his client did not seek to excuse his actions.
“In hindsight, he accepts he has not acted appropriately at all,” he said.
“At the time he was going through severe stress. His mental health was poor and he has acted in the way libelled.”
The solicitor added that Mackenzie has now “addressed trauma from his past” and accepts that the 17-year marriage is over.
Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov handed Mackenzie, of Prospect View, Lossiemouth, a community payback order comprising two years of supervision and 200 hours of unpaid work and also issued a non-harassment order which bans him from contacting his wife for two years.
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