A warehouse worker could face jail time for bombarding his ex with unwanted emails and texts, showing up at her house uninvited, and leaving gifts inside her home while she was out.
Phillip McClean, 51, of Richmond Terrace, Cumnock, also loitered outside his ex-partner’s home and parked his car outside her property between July and December last year.
Ayr Sheriff Court heard the couple were in a relationship from December 2019 to July 2021 before it ended.
Depute fiscal Emma Gilliland said: “On September 10, 2021, the complainer was in her home address and entered the kitchen and noticed flowers, chocolates and a bottle of Coke.
“The complainer became alarmed as she knew it was the accused and that he had been in her home without her knowing.
“The accused emailed the complainer saying he wanted to send an apology.”
CCTV footage from December 7, 2021, showed McClean jumping over a garden fence, enter the rear garden and cause damage to a car.
And on another occasion, CCTV flagged McClean at her property again, prompting the complainer to contact the police.
He later returned the same day, leaving a handwritten card behind.
Depute fiscal Gilliland said: “Later the same day, the accused McClean has reattended the complainer’s home address.
“She received a card and she recognised the accused’s handwriting.
“The card said ‘Can you love and hate someone at the same time?’”
Solicitor Graeme Cunningham said: “He’s always been honest about these matters.
“There was a continuous back and forth [of emails] between both of them but he has to accept he continued on.”
Sheriff Diane Turner replied she wasn’t surprised that some of the email replies from the complainer “may have been less than favourable”.
The Sheriff said of McClean: “It’s a very significant and sustained motion of conduct.”
Mr Cunningham said McClean “now accepts that the relationship is over”, adding that sending him to prison would have a punitive effect but may not address the root cause of his behaviour.
The solicitor said putting some safeguards in place for the complainer and others who may enter a relationship with McClean in the future would be beneficial.
Sheriff Turner deferred sentence for social work reports and a Caledonian Project assessment, a court-ordered behaviour programme which aims to address domestic abuse.
A non-harassment order for five years was also granted, preventing McClean from contacting, or attempting to contact, his ex partner.
The Sheriff warned McClean he could still face a prison sentence and said to him: “No emails, no cards, no visits. None of it whatsoever.
“I’m not making any promises but we’ll see what the report says.”
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