A WOMAN is accused of carrying out a four-month terror campaign against a doctor who treated her cancer-stricken husband.
Caroline McChesney, 49, denies being the person responsible for the spate of incidents between June and September last year that began months after her husband, David, had died.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard doctor John Maclean's cars were damaged with repeated flat tyres, abuse scratched on his car, and abuse daubed on his garage door and garden gate. He told the jury he was sent cards with messages including "How are you at putting out house fires".
Dr Maclean, 38, from Hyndland, Glasgow, was one of David McChesney's doctors up until the patient died in October, 2012.
He gave evidence at the trial of McChesney, of Lennoxtown in East Dunbartonshire, who was also a patient at the Turret Medical Practice in Kirkintilloch where Dr Maclean is a partner.
She is accused of causing Dr Maclean and his wife Rebecca fear or alarm between June 10 and October 26, 2013.
The court was told of a number of incidents last year, including Dr Maclean's tyres being let down and an obscenity scratched on the bonnet of his car.
Dr Maclean said that, after another incident, his car was so badly damaged it had to be scrapped. His wife's car was also scratched, its Mercedes badge ripped off and the tyres slashed. The doctor said his mother-in-law's car was also targeted when his wife borrowed it for a few days.
Dr Maclean told the jury that on June 22 last year a card arrived that said: "Going on holiday contact you wene [sic] back p.s your a dab hand with a pump lol".
Procurator fiscal depute Richard Hannay asked: "What did you think when you saw this card?" The doctor replied: "I was angry, I was frightened. I realised that this appeared to be a concerted campaign. We were very concerned as to who might be doing this and what their motive might be."
Dr Maclean said he installed CCTV and began parking his Mercedes 10 minutes away from his house but that the tyres were "violently slashed" once again.
The court heard that another card was received by the doctor that said: "Thinking of spiceing [sic] things up a little. How are you at putting out house fires??? (better than hiding cars ha ha)".
The witness said he was "very upset" and reported the matter to police, who recommended the fire brigade doing a risk-assessment.
The jury were also told that further obscenities were sprayed on Maclean's garage door, back gate and neighbour's bins.
Some instances of the car being vandalised by a hooded person was caught on CCTV, clips of which were shown to the jury.
Dr Maclean said that in September last year, he saw someone passing his house with a hood up whom he thought was the person responsible and followed them.
He said he watched someone he believed was a female getting in to a car and speeding off and was later told that the car belonged to McChesney.
Mr Hannay asked Dr Maclean how he felt when the police told him who owned the car, and he replied: "Devastated."
Dr Maclean told the jury he had been one of the doctors involved with Mr McChesney before he passed away, and saw the accused after her husband's death as she frequently came to the surgery.
He said he had no knowledge of any complaint from the family about Mr McChesney's care.
The doctor said Mr McChesney was diagnosed with cancer before he started working at the practice in 2009.
He said: "I remember visiting him in the later stages of his illness at his home and I remember seeing him in the final days of his life as a routine visit."
The trial before sheriff Martin Jones, QC, continues.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article