A father-of-two is facing jail after being convicted of harassing his ex-wife.
Sean Hartley, 27, had earlier been imprisoned for assaulting the same woman back in 2012.
Samantha Hartley gave evidence against him during the one-day trial at Inverness Sheriff Court.
She told the court that she encountered him at Eastgate Shopping Centre in the city on July 6.
This was despite her ex-husband, of 26 Friars Street, Inverness, being under a court order not to approach or contact her for two years, the court heard. Ms Hartley said: “I was nervous and worried.
“He was following me.
“Everywhere I was, he was there.”
Hartley faced a charge of stalking his 28-year-old former wife in the High Street, outside her home in Thornbush Road, and in Eastgate Centre, all Inverness, between June 11 and July 13.
Sheriff Fleetwood found him not guilty of this stalking charge, but convicted him of breaching the non-harassment order by approaching her in the shopping centre on July 6. Mrs Hartley told the court that she had been in McDonald’s restaurant in Castle Street when she saw her ex.
She told the trial: “I left and went to the Eastgate Centre with the kids and a friend.
“I saw him again and he was walking towards me.
“I went into another shop until he left and then went to the food court. I saw him standing beside another shop staring.
“He was on his phone and looking right at us.
“He was following me. He kept walking back and forth.
“I didn’t see him for a while and then he would be back, walking right past us.”
Ms Hartley told the court the experience had made her “really emotional” and that she reported the incident to her family liaison officer.
Hartley, who denied the charges, said he had been in the Eastgate Centre to buy protein drinks for his weightlifting.
He told the court: “I didn’t have contact with her and I wasn’t staring.”
In 2012, Hartley was jailed for a year after he admitted two assaults on his ex-wife before they were married.
In 2013, when they were engaged, he was fined £400 for slapping his fiancee during a row.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood was told it was the second time 27-year-old Sean Hartley had defied the court order, and he was on a deferred sentence for him to be of good behaviour following the earlier infringement.
Hartley was further remanded in custody and warned by Sheriff Fleetwood that a custodial sentence was a very likely outcome.
The sheriff called for a mandatory background report after hearing that Hartley was also on a community payback order.
Hartley had spent five weeks in custody and defence lawyer John MacColl failed in his effort to have his client released on bail after Sheriff Fleetwood examined Hartley’s previous convictions.
He will be sentenced on September 21.