A YOUNG islander has claimed she was scared to return to the Scottish mainland after her former fiance made threats about acid being thrown in her face.

Rebecca Laidlaw, 22, told a court that Craig Burgoyne, 26, phoned her on her mobile early one morning was at her parents' home in Shetland in October last year, more than two months after the end of their two-and-a-half year relationship.

Ms Laidlaw said she had begun a relationship with a new boyfriend, and Mr Burgoyne, 26, was "obviously upset and very angry" when he called.

She said: "Craig said he was coming up to Shetland and somebody would throw acid in my face for being so vain."

Ms Laidlaw, an employment coach with Skills Development Scotland, said she had earlier been woken by her new boyfriend, Jason Henry.

He came to her parents' house in remote East Voe, Scalloway, about 5am that day and warned her that messages they had privately exchanged had been posted on her public Facebook pages.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard the process of taking over someone's Facebook and using it in such a way was known as "being Fraped".

The court heard that the messages she had exchanged with Mr Henry, an ambulance care assistant, were "intimate and quite sexual in content" and began: "That's right, I'm not that innocent little girl...."

Miss Laidlaw said Mr Burgoyne, of Stirling, knew her email address, password, and other details to access her Facebook account.

She said: "Details of my relationship with Jason Henry had been screen shot-ed and placed on Facebook.

"It was a conversation between me and Jason. They were very private.

"I was embarrassed, humiliated, and upset."

Miss Laidlaw said when Mr Burgoyne phoned and mentioned acid being thrown, she was "upset, shocked, and surprised that he would go that far".

She said: "I was quite scared.

"I feel quite lucky to be on a separate island – there's a kind of security I get from being on Shetland.

"If I do visit the mainland now I make surprise visits. I don't tell anybody before I get there."

Miss Laidlaw told the court that after the intimate messages were posted, she initially could not get onto her Facebook because her password had been changed.

She said when she did, she deleted all the posts and de-activated her Facebook account.

Frazer McCready, defending, asked her: "This is something known as being 'Fraped'?"

Miss Laidlaw replied: "Yes."

She said that Burgoyne went on to phone her another 26 times before 9.30 am.

She said: "We went to the police that morning."

She and Mr Burgoyne had formerly lived in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, and Auchenbowie, near Stirling.

Mr Henry told the court he overheard the phone call from Mr Burgoyne.

He said: "There was a lot of abuse. The thing that stuck in my mind was he said he was in the car, he was going to come up to Shetland, and he had some acid he was going to throw in her face for being such a vain bitch.

"It was very specific.

"There was no reasoning in his voice. It was pure threats and abuse."

Burgoyne, of Auchenbowie Farm, Stirling, denies a charge of stalking Miss Laidlaw, causing her fear and alarm, between August 1 and October 14 last year.

The summary trial before Sheriff Wyllie Robertson is to continue later this month.