Shame of spurned lover

He bombarded ex with messages

A lovelorn yob bombarded a woman with WhatsApp and text messages despite being banned from contacting her, a court heard.

Desperate John Bain, 39, even lost his job as a Business Development officer at the Scottish Qualifications Authority over his obsession with the Barrhead mum.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard Bain, who was suspended and terminated from his job at the educational body, continued to hound his ex-lover with messages despite being handed a Non Harassment Order preventing him from approaching or contacting her

He appeared shamefaced in the dock where he pleaded guilty to charges of breaking the order, and to breaching conditions of bail, at the hearing before Sheriff Colin Pettigrew.

The ban was put in place in October 2017 following an incident where Bain had left the mum in a state of fear and alarm after losing the plot at her home.

Fiscal depute Mark Nicol said: “At around 2.25pm on August 5 the complainer was at her home address when she was in receipt of various texts and messages on WhatsApp.

“These were clearly sent by the accused. There was his name and a picture matching him on them.

“The complainer declined to respond to the initial message.

“A further 33 messages were sent in the course of the day. Additional messages were sent the following day.”

The fiscal added the complainer contacted police to report Bain, who was in London.

However defiant Bain continued to send messages to his ex-lover, despite being aware of the police inquiry.

The court heard he even continued messaging her, after cops had spoken to him on his mobile phone.

Defence agent Mr McCulloch confirmed his client was pleading guilty to the offences of breaking both the non harassment order and conditions of his bail.

He said: “They had been in a relationship. There had been periods when they were in contact and when they weren’t. He also received messages from the complainer although the onus on him was not to talk to her or approach her. In this he failed. However, it was only when they had fallen out that the police became involved.”

The lawyer added he had only reacted to posts from the complainer, and that Bain, who worked for SQA for five years, had been sacked from his job recently after the offences came to light.

Sheriff Colin Pettigrew slated the accused for his behaviour and said the only appropriate disposal for his breaking both the NHO and bail would be a custodial disposal.

He remanded Bain in custody to call for more information from the Crown about the nature of the messages sent to the complainer.

The accused will discover his fate on September 13.