Digital evidence presented

A recording from a video doorbell was shown to Campbeltown Sheriff Court last week when a man pleaded guilty to threatening or abusive behaviour towards a former neighbour.

And in his defence, Christopher Corkindale showed Sheriff Patrick Hughes video filmed on his own mobile phone of the neighbour being aggressive towards him and his former partner.

Corkindale, aged 35, now of 24 Burnside Street, Campbeltown, could be seen and heard on the doorbell recording being abusive towards the elderly neighbour and making an obscene gesture. This happened at the address elsewhere in Campbeltown on March 26 this year.

The video recording went to the mobile phone of the pensioner’s daughter who contacted the police.

Ruben Murdanaigum, defence agent for Corkindale, said the fisherman and his former partner had lived in a close with gardens side-by-side with the woman.

They had helped her with her garden but they had fallen out and the woman became abusive to them to the extent they felt they could not go into their part of the garden, especially so when the video doorbell was fitted, which effectively monitored their garden constantly.

‘Both my client and his girlfriend, they tried to do right to resolve the matter,’ the agent said. ‘They were prisoners in their own home during the lockdown.’

Sheriff Hughes deferred sentence for four months for Corkindale to be of good behaviour, saying he appreciated people all over the country were under pressure during the lockdown, ‘but this was unacceptable behaviour’.

The case is due to call again on October 14.