A pensioner who embarked on a 1,000-mile round trip to stalk a woman was caught after his victim - an artist - sketched a picture of her abuser.
Former soldier Graham Curtis, 73, was barred from going near Stephanie Pass. Instead he tracked down her daughter's family to a Perthshire village to subject them to a campaign of harassment.
Curtis had already been made the subject of a restraining order by a court in Dorset banning him from going near Mrs Pass or her artist daughter Lauren.
But he drove 500 miles from his home to Crieff to stare through an art gallery window at Lauren Pass before posting sinister emails to her father, Philip.
Curtis was convicted at West Dorset Magistrates Court last summer after posting untrue letters about Mrs Pass to her friends and colleagues.
Yesterday he was found guilty at Perth Sheriff Court of causing fear and alarm to Philip and Lauren Pass by engaging in a threatening or abusive manner in October last year. Curtis was fined £400.
Mr Pass, 61, who owns the House of Tartan, told the court he had sent emails to the police in Dorset about Curtis and it was one of those the stalker had pushed through his door. He said: "Lauren is an artist of some note and she drew me a little picture of Graham Curtis because I never knew what he looked like."
Miss Pass, 26, said she saw Curtis drive by and stare menacingly into the art gallery when she assumed he was 500 miles away in Dorset.
She said: "I was very surprised and angry at first, and then very scared."
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