Poison pen letters land man in court
A 58-YEAR-OLD man from the Sound of Kintyre, accused of breaking the law by sending poison pen letters to his elderly mother, her former boyfriend and their friends and neighbours, has said he did so to try and split the couple up.
Joseph Carson is currently on trial accused of sending letters and texts to his 80-yearold mother and Mr Moreland, 77, which were of a threatening or abusive nature.
This week Carson admitted sending a host of letters to the then-couple; neighbours of both pensioners and Erskine Parish Church where Carson’s mother attends regularly and where his father’s ashes are scattered.
In the letters, Carson branded Moreland ‘a sleaze’, ‘an abuser of women’, ‘a worthless piece of dog poo’, ‘a vindictive, evil man of malice’ and ‘a f ****** sick b ****** ’.
In another, sent to one of his mother’s friends, he said: ‘I want to take him to where my father’s ashes are for him to beg George [Carson] for forgiveness for what he’s done and what he’s doing to the entire Carson family.’
Another letter, sent to Moreland, said: ‘I have one problem in my life and that is you, you sick b ****** .’
Carson, 58, told Paisley Sheriff Court he sent the letters because he was worried for his mother. When asked by defence solicitor David Nicholson why he had sent them, Carson said: ‘He disrespected my mother outwith her presence. I was trying to put the fear of God in to Mr Moreland because of what he’d done to me, my mother and my deceased father.
‘The police wouldn’t do anything – they wouldn’t attend my mother’s house to pro- tect her from Mr Moreland. The social work service also refused to attend my mother’s house.
‘He [Mr Moreland] threatened my mother in hospital. She was in a vulnerable, elderly position, to go against her son and only child.
Mr Moreland, at that time, had been my mother’s boyfriend for seven days. He has no respect for anybody except himself.
‘It was my mother he’d abused – the man’s sick in the head.’
And Carson said he resorted to writing the letters because he believed he was doing nothing wrong in doing so.
He explained: ‘I tried everything possible to go down the proper route, to protect my mother, to get rid of him. I wrote the letters to try and protect her. At the time I thought sending the letters out to protect my mother would be within the law. If I’d hit Mr Moreland that would’ve been outwith the law.
‘I wanted to get rid of Ronald Moreland for the immense damage he had caused.
‘I’m getting punished because the police and everyone else wouldn’t do their jobs.’
Giving evidence in December, his mother broke down in tears as said she felt ‘ashamed’ and as if she could no longer attend church because of Carson’s conduct.
The 80-year-old said she split from Mr Moreland because of the fallout from her son’s letters. She explained: ‘It’s now over two years since we parted... because of issues my son brought up and Mr Moreland couldn’t take any more of it.
‘I never thought my son would be like that.’
Ronald Moreland also gave evidence at a previous hearing, telling the court he had received ‘terribly vulgar’ letters which said Carson thought he was ‘a negative influence on his mum’ and believed he was abusing her.
He added: ‘I did have visits from the police.
‘I was aware he’d made reports to the police about me.
‘I think he was after control of his mother.
‘He’s clearly trying to make trouble for his mother and myself. I don’t think he wanted us to go about in the first place.’
Carson denies sending Mr Moreland a text message which was of a menacing and threatening nature, inferring violence against him, and engaging in a course of conduct which caused him and his mother fear and alarm.
Carson, of Sound of Kintyre, Machrihanish, denies sending threatening letters and texts to his mother and Ronald Moreland between December 13 and 30, 2014, in breach of Section 39 (1) of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, and the trial before Sheriff Seith Ireland will continue on April 3.