AN OPERA singer has told how he had a doorstep confrontation with his author wife's former lover, who had called her a "bitch".

Jonathan May, 53, spoke to pianist Graeme McNaught, 54, after he arrived unexpectedly at the home Mr May shared with writer Janice Galloway on New Year's Eve in 2008.

Mr May said he answered the door to McNaught but refused to allow him into the house.

McNaught is alleged to have insisted he be allowed to talk to his son James, but when told by Mr May that he was not at home, he said: "Did that bitch send you out here?"

McNaught, of Mount Vernon, Glasgow, is on trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court and faces a total of 10 charges of placing Ms Galloway in a state of fear and alarm.

He has denied all the claims against him.

Giving evidence at the trial, Mr May, who married Ms Galloway in 2006, said: "On Hogmanay 2008 we had guests staying, John and Phillipa Moore.

"We don't have crazy New Years and we were watching Jools Holland on the telly in the front room of the house.

"James was out with his friends. After the Bells we heard banging at the storm door at the front so I went to the door.

"Graeme was there with a woman. He said he had come to wish James a Happy New Year.

"I explained that James was not in and he said he did not believe me.

"I said you need to go, I think I might have told him to f*** off.

"He said: 'did that bitch send you out here?'. He was referring to Janice."

Continuing his evidence, Mr May said that he told McNaught to "go away again" and said he would phone the police.

"Janice was really distressed by this and was keen not to be seen by Graeme so we pulled the curtain closed," he said.

"We heard a lot of hammering and banging at the windows; stones were being thrown as well at the window.

"There was a gap in the curtains and I could see faces at the window, which was quite scary. I remember seeing Graeme's face.

"Our guests were shocked by this, they did not know what was going on."

Mr May also told how he had received hundreds of messages and phone calls from McNaught during the time he had been in a relationship with Ms Galloway.

He said: "I met Janice in 2002 and we moved in together in 2003.

"James would visit Graeme, who was then living in the west end, and I would be a sort of taxi driver for him and Janice.

"Other than visiting him with James, I don't think him and Janice had much contact.

"I was weary of him."

He added: "I could tell you about emails and messages I got off him, but I got so many I could not tell you the details.

"I have seen hundreds of emails, I have had many calls and many messages left by Graeme on my mobile phone and on the land line.

"We also got letters from him.Some we kept, some we burned, some we threw away, some we tore up; we did not know what to do with them so we did all this, they were not welcome.

"In 2004 when we talked I attempted to be a mediator between Graeme and Janice.

"I think he thought I was a joke, I don't think he liked me but that was mutual.

"One time I took James on a supervised visit to his house and after a while James said he wanted to go.

"After that I met him in ­Waterstone's and he said he was going to start a court case to get full custody of James because he said Janice was a terrible mother and James would be better off with him.

"We then got some professional mediation, but that just came to nothing."

The trial before Sheriff Ray Small continues.