A jilted ex hounded his former partner with calls, texts and threats to kill both himself and her.
Scott Fitzgibbon, 49, ignored the woman’s requests to stop contacting her and bombarded her with calls and messages over a number of days.
When she didn’t answer them, he sent a chilling message: “The most dangerous people are those who have nothing to lose.”
Fitzgibbon, of MacInnes Place, Aviemore, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to plead guilty to a single charge of engaging in a course of behaviour that was likely to cause fear or alarm to his ex-partner.
‘Unpredictable’ behaviour
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh told the court that the couple had been in a relationship for three months but this had come to an end on June 27, when the woman had become concerned about Fitzgibbon’s “unpredictable” behaviour.
On this day she attended a yoga class but when she turned her phone on afterwards she received a call from Fitzgibbon demanding to know who she was with and asking her to go to his.
Between 11.29am and 12pm she received five calls from him.
“She would answer the calls and tell Mr Fitzgibbon to stop contacting her,” Ms Duffy-Welsh said.
But he ignored this, calling her a further six times.
The court heard that Fitzgibbon became jealous when he heard that an ex-partner of the woman was carrying out some work at her home.
He made further calls, asking why she wasn’t at his house and was “upset” that she wanted distance from him.
During one call he told her he “knew exactly what he was going to do and he was going to kill himself”.
‘You are coming with me’
He added: “We are going together, you are coming with me.”
After this, he sent her two pictures with the message: “This is what you have done to me. From this to this you don’t care, it is that simple. I really hope this last image sticks in your head.”
On July 1 between 4.48am and 5.18am he called her 19 times and sent 30 text messages.
Later that day he called another nine times but the woman did not answer.
After that, he sent a message that read: “The most dangerous people are those who have absolutely nothing to lose, remember that thought.”
When police arrested him he told them: “I got drunk and sent the messages and I know it was stupid.”
‘Alcohol and emotion’
He added that there was “no threat whatsoever” in the communication.
Fitzgibbon’s solicitor David Paterson told the court that his client’s behaviour had been “fuelled by alcohol and emotion”.
He said this was a “particularly difficult period of his life” for his client, who had been suffering from poor mental heath, adding that the “breakup was not a clean one” meaning “he returned to his old habits”.
Sheriff Neil Kinnear accepted that the behaviour had been “fuelled by upset at the breakup of the relationship and alcohol” but told Fitzgibbon: “This behaviour is clearly unacceptable.”
He placed him on a community payback order with six months supervision and a programme requirement to seek alcohol treatment.
He also ordered him to carry out 90 hours of unpaid work in the community.
