FORMER radio DJ Suzie McGuire was left in floods of tears after being followed by her estranged husband three days after a sheriff banned him from approaching her, his domestic abuse trial has heard.
The former Clyde One DJ is said to have been hysterical after she spotted Derek Mitchell driving behind her through the streets of East Kilbride in October last year.
Mr Mitchell is currently on trial at Paisley Sheriff Court accused of a series of assaults on Ms McGuire, breaching the peace and breaking his bail conditions by following her in his car.
Yesterday her friend Lisa Marie O'Donnell told the trial she was driving behind Ms McGuire when she spotted Mr Mitchell's car between her Mercedes and Ms McGuire's Audi.
The call centre manager said she had noticed Mr Mitchell's "distinctive" car earlier that day when she dropped Oliver and Poppy - the children he has with Ms McGuire - off at his office.
She said she spotted the black Jeep again later that day as she, her mother Ellen McHaghne and Ms McGuire made their way back to Cambuslang, where they all lived together at the time.
The 32-year-old explained: "I saw Derek Mitchell. We were about halfway down the road and that's when I noticed it was his car. I remembered that at the time there was an injunction out meaning they couldn't go near each other.
"He should not have been that close to Suzie. I thought he might pull in to let the traffic past because he shouldn't be anywhere near to Suzie.
"I phoned my mum and said, 'I think that car is Derek Mitchell's'. She said, 'It is him. She's just phoned me. She's hysterical, crying, upset. He's right behind her and she's terrified'.
O'Donnell said the incident took place on October 31 last year, which was, the court heard, just three days after Mr Mitchell had been released on bail. He had been charged with assaulting Ms McGuire repeatedly during their relationship.
Mr Mitchell denies the charges and the trial, before Sheriff Susan Sinclair, 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