A serial stalker continued to send love letters and make apologetic phone calls to his latest victim despite being in prison at the time.
Lee Blackburn, who has previous convictions for stalking a number of different women in the north and north-east, bombarded his former partner with communications from Inverness Prison.
Fiscal depute Robert Weir said that the nine-month relationship ended when Blackburn stopped her car in Kinloss caravan park, grabbed her keys from the ignition, threw them away and shouted insults.
Mr Weir said that Blackburn, 44, then made 15 calls and sent six letters to the woman from jail until November 20, 2020, making her feel she was being “stalked.”
He admitted the offence of stalking and was jailed for five months by Sheriff Ian Cruickshank, who reduced a 12-month sentence by seven months to take account of the time Blackburn spent on remand.
‘He is not getting better’
Defence solicitor Graham Mann said the original offence itself was “at the lower end of the scale” but his client’s record of several similar offences made it more serious.
He said: “But he never goes back to any of the women and makes life difficult. When there is clarity in a relationship, he does seem to stop himself.
“He made the mistake again of communicating with a woman to apologise.”
Mr Mann said that Blackburn – formerly of Kirkside, Alness – was serving a jail sentence until the end of the year, imposed after a community payback order was breached by the commission of this offence.
“His record reflects a pattern of behaviour and he is not getting better,” Mr Mann added.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank also imposed a three-year non-harassment order to protect the woman.
