AN author has told a court her ex-lover made her feel 'suicidal' after repeatedly trying to contact her.

Janice Galloway, 59, said she had CCTV installed at her home to try to capture Graeme McNaught turning up uninvited and trying to leave items for her.

Miss Galloway and McNaught, of Mount Vernon, Glasgow, met in 1990 and had a six year on-off relationship during which they had a son, James.

Concert pianist McNaught, 55, is on trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court and is accused of leaving a letter and having a parcel delivered to Miss Galloway's home in Uddingston, Lanarkshire.

He denies repeatedly going to her solicitor's office and asking for her to be contacted. He also denies repeatedly emailing her agent and husband and breaching bail conditions.

He has lodged a special defence that he was not criminally responsible for the alleged incidents of October last year because he was suffering a mental health condition.

Giving evidence from behind screens, Miss Galloway said she suffers from depression and hit 'breaking point' as McNaught began contacting her last year.

She said: "I work with my head and when I run out of imagination, I have nothing left.

'I was at breaking point, in fact you could say I was on the verge of being suicidal.

"Admitting you are that low is the only way to get help and I had to go to my GP to get it because I suffer from depression. I was suffering from panic attacks too.

"I was like a fish out of water and I had no idea how to get back into it, it was very frightening."

She also told the jury she had CCTV installed in her house after getting advice from the police.

She added: "The police told me that they thought CCTV was a good idea and I agreed because it would capture on film what he was doing and that would be useful evidence for the future."

And she also told the court that McNaught had said he only wanted to contact his son but had continued to contact her even though James now lives in London.

She continued: "I thought when James became aged to be contacted himself at 16 that this would all stop but we are now six years on and it is still happening.

"I have spent nearly two decades trying to get Graeme to stop contacting me.

"I do not want anything from him and when I do get something it is extremely distressing.

"He pretends he has a good reason for contacting me but I can't see it.

"He would also contact people I know and try and make me professionally toxic."

The jury also heard from Alison Cameron, 59, who said she felt ill when McNaught turned up at the house she shares with Miss Galloway and her husband Jonathan May.

She said: "The back door bell rang and given what had happened earlier that day I thought it would be something to do with Graeme.

"Jonathan went through and shouted, 'It's Graeme', and I immediately felt sick and angry.

"Bail had just ended and he was telling us in a letter he was in a celebratory mood, he must have thought it was open season to start contacting us again.

"Everything in that letter was ludicrous and beyond contempt."

The trial before Sheriff Marie Smart continues.