A BEST-SELLING author has broken down in tears as she told how she feared her ex-lover was going to destroy her career.
Janice Galloway, 58, the author of titles such as The Trick is to Keep Breathing, Foreign Parts and Blood, claimed concert pianist Graeme McNaught, 54, launched a campaign to damage her reputation and harm sales of her books.
McNaught, of Mount Vernon, Glasgow, is on trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court and faces a total of 10 charges of placing Miss Galloway in a state of fear and alarm. He has denied all the claims against him.
YesterdayMiss Galloway, of Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, told a jury she became terrified to leave her home over fears McNaught would turn up at events she had been booked to appear at.
Miss Galloway also told how McNaught had contacted online retailer Amazon in an attempt to change information about her on their website.
She said: "Whatever the changes were they would have meant something bad for my sales popularity. This was an attempt to undermine my career standing and damage my career."
Miss Galloway told the jury McNaught taunted her and her husband Jonathan May when he started dating a younger woman called Alice, who had been a student of his. The court was shown a letter McNaught had sent to Miss Galloway which said: "Alice would love to meet you. Ask Jonathan, he thought her a 'bit of all right'."
Miss Galloway added: "It was pathetic. It was like he was trying to provoke envy with my own husband.
"He used to point sexual put downs at me. He talked about her perfection as opposed to my non-perfection."
Miss Galloway and McNaught met in 1990 and had a six-year on-off relationship during which they had a son James, 22.
The trial before Sheriff Ray Small continues.
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