A SERIAL Facebook troll is facing a lengthy jail term for sending a barrage of abuse via the social networking site weeks after serving a sentence for an identical offence.
Stewart McInroy was jailed in August after sending a series of messages to friends and family of missing Glenrothes man Allan Bryant Jr - claiming he had taken Allan hostage and had then "brutally tortured and murdered him".
He was released in September last year having served half of a 10-month sentence.
However, in November McInroy again took to Facebook to launch a campaign of abuse against his ex girlfriend Lisa Dryburgh - threatening to hurt a dog and a small child if she did not contact him before claiming he would burn her house down.
McInroy, 24, sent a series of text and voice messages to Kimberley Walker to get her to contact Miss Dryburgh.
He first told Miss Walker that "pain and misery" would be caused to a puppy if she did not contact Miss Dryburgh for him, before stating he had a child and that they would "suffer" and that she had "no choice" but to contact Miss Dryburgh for him.
Fiscal depute Beverly Adam told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court: "Miss Walker thought he was joking but he then sent a voice recording to Miss Walker in which he said 'Just to make my point' - followed by the sound of a dog whimpering.
"By this time she felt compelled to contact Lisa Dryburgh.
"The next day Miss Dryburgh was made aware of two posts on Facebook.
"One mentioned 'punishment has to start and you will suffer for your actions'.
"The second said 'I will burn your home no matter how long I wait or what but as long as you're dead. You had a choice my friend, you think I'm just saying it but we shall see'.
"Miss Dryburgh believed these related to her and contacted police."
McInroy, 24, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pleaded guilty to a charge of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner likely to cause fear and alarm on November 14 and 15 last year.
Sheriff Grant McCulloch deferred sentence for social work background reports and remanded McInroy in custody meantime.
He said: "Standing the narrative I have heard and the comments made, as well as your record, a custodial sentence is most likely.
"There is no prospect of bail meantime."
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