A NOTORIOUS computer hacker wept in the dock as a sheriff spared him a jail sentence for a brutal assault on his ex-partner’s new boyfriend.
Matthew Anderson battered Gary Jenkins with a metal bar and repeatedly punched him – leaving him permanently scarred.
He later bombarded Davina Marshall with text messages and e-mails despite her pleading with him to stop.
The assault on Mr Jenkins was carried out in front of Anderson’s seven-year-old daughter.
A sheriff described that as “unforgivable” yesterday, but decided not to send him to prison.
And his former girlfriend Miss Marshall’s parents said the sentence made a mockery of the justice system.
Anderson, 37, of 26 Tocher Terrace, Drummuir, Keith, hit Mr Jenkins on the head with an iron bar at a farm near Garmouth on May 11.
The computer security expert – who is now a chef – admitted the attack.
Fiscal depute Kevin Corrins told Elgin Sheriff Court it happened after he went to the house to fetch a toy for his daughter.
The court heard he “instantly became aggressive” towards Miss Marshall and questioned why Mr Jenkins was in the house.
Mr Jenkins was left bleeding profusely from a wound to his head after being knocked down with the metal pole.
Anderson also admitted drink-driving about 13 hours later after police intercepted a phone call he made to Miss Marshall and caught him en route to her house while he was almost five times the legal alcohol limit.
While he was on bail between May 11 and July 20 – with the special condition not to contact Miss Marshall – he bombarded her and her family with text messages and e-mails, sending up to 200 texts and 200 e-mails in a single day.
Sheriff David Hall told Anderson: “This case has posed me difficulty when deciding the appropriate sentence.
“But I have decided that I am just able to offer you an alternative to a custodial sentence.”
Anderson wept in the dock as Sheriff Hall told him he would be subject to a two-year community payback order.
He was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work and pay Mr Jenkins £1,000 in compensation.
He was also given a six-month restriction of liberty requirement not to leave his home address between 7pm-7am.
Anderson was also fined £500 and banned from driving for three years.
Miss Marshall’s mother, Jacqueline, said outside court: “We are sorry he has not gone to jail, but at the same time, now he has to behave himself or he will go to jail.
“The children are seven and 10, and they were traumatised by the whole thing.
“It is awful. My daughter lives terrified every day with alarms everywhere, a camera outside and a bar at the door.”
Her husband Stuart added: “This just makes an absolute mockery of the justice system.”
Anderson’s agent, solicitor Stephen Carty, said his client accepted his conduct was inappropriate and, although his breach of bail may have been misguided, he was fuelled only by a strong desire to maintain contact with his children.
Anderson was given an 18-month jail sentence at Southwark Crown Court in 2010 after admitting being a key member of a sophisticated international gang of hackers.
He accessed highly personal data and photographs in a sophisticated e-mail scam from his mother’s home in Moray.
He used his skills as a computer security expert to target businesses and individuals with spam containing hidden viruses.
He even controlled victims’ webcams to see inside their homes and saved files on his own computer, including webcam images of a girl in school uniform, a family photograph of a mother and her newborn baby in hospital and intimate pictures of a sexual nature.
Judge Geoffrey Rivlin said at the time that the offending was on an “almost unimaginable scale”.
