Guilty, ex-cop who terrorised teacher in ‘village of fear’
A RETIRED policeman whose campaign of harassment led to properties in a village being ‘tagged’ to protect locals has been convicted of threatening a school headteacher.
Thomas Kirsop, 77, ‘terrified’ Susan Kemp by standing in the road and staring at her as she arrived for work.
A witness told Fort William Sheriff Court yesterday that the 59-year-old teacher turned ‘chalk white’ and began to shake following the encounter.
The incident happened at 8.50am on August 16, outside the primary school in North Ballachulish, Inverness-shire, close to where Kirsop lives. It follows a court hearing last month at which a sheriff ruled that homes, a shop and tearoom in nearby Onich would be fitted with electronic boxes designed to trigger an alarm if Kirsop approached. It is the first time the system has been used in this country.
Giving evidence at the pensioner’s trial yesterday, Miss Kemp said: ‘His body language concerned me, his chest was forward and his fists were clenched.
‘He was in the oncoming lane. Had I been driving forwards he would have been in my way but I was turning right in the school.’
She added: ‘I was in a wee bit of a panic because Mr Kirsop was focused on me. I was afraid of what he intended to do. He was the last person I would expect to be there.
‘I felt afraid and I felt intimidated. He was walking with a purpose to my mind with an aggressive and intimidating stance.’
Miss Kemp said she was then ‘relieved’ to spot off-duty PC Ian Young sitting in his car after dropping his children at the school, and expressed her concerns to him.
Mr Young, 41, told the court: ‘I saw a male standing on the footpath near the school outside a house. His position was strange, he was facing the school stood on his own. The way he was standing, it was like he was trying to make himself look big, he puffed his chest and stood up tall with his hands clenched.
‘The male then walked out to the white line in the road and paused, as if he was trying to be noticed.’
Mr Young, a member of Police Scotland’s road policing team, said he then saw Miss Kemp’s car.
He told the court: ‘I noticed her face was chalk white, she was absolutely terrified, she looked as if she was going to be sick. Her hands were shaking on the steering wheel, she looked very frightened.’
Mr Young said Kirsop, a former police constable in Glasgow, then walked back to the pavement. Under cross-examination by defence lawyer John McColl, the witness confirmed that he knew the defendant by sight and was aware that he lived on that street.
Mr McColl suggested that Kirsop, who has a grandson at the school, simply had ‘good posture’ and that he was looking towards a loch and the scenic view behind Miss Kemp.
Mr Young replied: ‘No, it was strange.’
Kirsop also denied two charges that he caused fear and alarm to special constable Nicola Mair, 46, and a boy outside the same school in an incident on September 8. He also denied breaching a bail condition by approaching Miss Kemp.
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald found Kirsop guilty of causing fear and alarm to Miss Kemp but cleared him of the other charges. Sentence was deferred until December 5.
Last month, Kirsop was convicted of six charges of harassment after a two-year campaign of ‘intimidation’. He swore at the owners of a tearoom, sent anonymous letters made from newspaper clippings to his neighbours and stared at the same neighbour while swinging a chainsaw.
The electronic tags, which are triggered by an ankle bracelet worn by the pensioner, were put in place for a year. Speaking at Kirsop’s home last night, his wife Mairi, 76, said: ‘This whole thing has been very stressful. We just want to put it behind us.’
‘I felt afraid and intimidated’