A STEROID abuser who stalked a woman and bombarded her with nuisance phone calls has been jailed for 30 months and banned from approaching her for 20 years.
Mark Armstrong, 40, has become one of the first people in Scotland to be jailed under new anti-stalking laws for pursuing Karolina Golebiewska over a two-month period last year.
Armstrong was never romantically involved with Ms Golebiewska – but pursued her across Edinburgh between October 2011 and December 2011.
He approached her in Maderia Street, St Andrews Square and Leith Walk, turned up at her workplace and made telephone calls in which he threatened violence.
A terrified Ms Golebiewska contacted Lothian and Borders Police who arrested Armstrong.
In addition to the prison sentence Sheriff Neil Mackinnon yesterday also placed Armstrong under supervision for 12 months following his release.
He said: "The requirements for public safety demand me to impose a custodial sentence on you."
Ms Golebiewska sat in court with friends and wept as the sheriff delivered his verdict.
Armstrong, originally of Leith, was convicted at an earlier hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. He spent his youth in Canada and had previous convictions from his time there.
During earlier proceedings, the court heard how Armstrong started approaching his victim in the street and even turned up at her place of work.
He then started following her and also discovered Ms Golebiewska's telephone number, which he started ringing repeatedly.
Defence solicitor advocate Jim Stephenson yesterday said his client had been abusing steroids during the time of the stalking.
Saying Armstrong wanted to apologise to Ms Golebiewska, Mr Stephenson added: "He accepts he was abusing steroids at the time of the offences. He obtained these steroids from the internet and he was injecting them once a week.
"He accepts that this made him more aggressive."
Speaking after the case, Ms Golebiewska expressed her relief that the case had ended and thanked prosecutors for the help they gave her. She also said that she belived justice had now been done.
The Solicitor General, Lesley Thompson, QC, said they were determined to crack down on stalking.
She said: "Stalking can have a devastating and lasting impact on the lives of victims.
"Scotland's prosecutors are dedicated to bringing to justice all those who, like Mark Armstrong, pursue a campaign of stalking and harassment.
"Though many of his actions, if taken in isolation, could perhaps appear innocuous, it was his persistent course of conduct that caused fear and alarm and constituted the statutory offence of stalking.
"We would encourage anybody who is the subject of this type of behaviour to have no hesitation in reporting what is happening to the police and prosecutors take such offences extremely seriously."
Scotland introduced pioneering stalking legislation in December 2010, which made it a crime to cause a victim fear, alarm or distress.
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