A thug who threatened to assassinate a family in a shotgun attack after blowing up their car dodged prison over the offences yesterday.
Steven Taylor, who is also known as Steven Whyte, hounded Lisa and Colin Henry in a lengthy feud.
A sheriff said Taylor was guilty of "a horrendous series of offending".
But he spared him prison and ordered him to pay compensation and carry out unpaid work.
Taylor harassed the Henry family even after they'd moved home and installed security measures to protect themselves from him.
They forked out on CCTV cameras and panic alarms at their home and got a court order preventing him from harassing them.
They took the measures after he was twice convicted of hounding members of the family.
But their new address was disclosed to him on court documents.
And the tattooed thug, who also goes by the name Steven Smallridge, went on to torch the family's car after finding out where they were living.
He also turned up at their home, claimed he was in possession of a shotgun, and threatened to kill the family during his campaign of harassment.
On March 8, 2020, Taylor and an unidentified man torched Lisa Henry's car as it sat in a car park outside her home in Irvine, Ayrshire.
The CCTV cameras the Henrys had installed captured them setting the vehicle on fire, leaving it "completely destroyed".
He later confessed his involvement to his then-girlfriend and told her he had paid an accomplice valium tablets to assist with the firebomb attack.
And on March 27 he again targeted the Henrys, standing outside their home in possession of what looked like a shotgun and yelling, "I have a f****** shotgun. Your full family is in there. They're all getting it".
The police were called and a firearms unit raced to the scene but Taylor was nowhere to be found.
Taylor, 34, admitted his guilt at a previous Kilmarnock Sheriff Court hearing and returned to the dock yesterday to be sentenced.
Defence solicitor Marisa Borland said Taylor was experiencing poor mental health at the time.
Sheriff George Jamieson could have caged Taylor, of Dalry, Ayrshire, for up to five years for the offences.
But he placed him on a Community Payback Order, telling him he will be supervised by social workers for two years and has 12 months to do 300 hours' unpaid work.
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He also ordered him to pay £2,450 in compensation and made him the subject of a Restriction of Liberty Order (RoLO).
The RoLO will see him fitted with an electronic tag and having to remain within his home between 8.30pm and 6am every day for six months.
He was also made the subject of a Non-Harassment Order, banning him from approaching or contacting the family for four years, and warned he could be caged for five years if he breaches the orders.
Sheriff Jamieson said: "Any breach of a court order is extremely serious - you'll get no mercy from that.
"I'm dealing with this by way of high-end Community Orders. This is part of a package."
