Man banned from town for stalking offence

COURT: Ronnie Hunter excluded from entering Bridge of Allan for 18 months

A council finance boss who stalked his ex-partner for seven months, even nearly buying a house in her street, was yesterday banned from an entire town.

Former international athlete Ronnie Hunter, 56, who now works for Edinburgh City Council as its treasury and banking finance manager, was excluded from Bridge of Allan for 18 months.

Hunter, of Garnethill, Glasgow, a chartered banker and a veteran athlete who has run for Scotland and Great Britain, appeared for sentence at Stirling Sheriff Court after being found guilty last month of stalking the woman by loitering “almost daily” near her home in Bridge of Allan between April and November last year and staring at her. He had denied the charge.

Stephen Maguire, defending, said Hunter’s career was now in question.

He said: “There are implications potentially in respect of his professional life and the fallout from that is yet to be clarified.”

He added that there was a “misreading and misunderstanding” about the woman’s feelings.

The court heard that the woman dated Hunter over almost three years, before ending their relationship in 2017 but Hunter “wouldn’t accept it was over”.

He then began driving almost daily from his home in Glasgow to Bridge of Allan and parking in her street, ignoring the “large and more convenient” free station car park, and getting a train to his Edinburgh office.

He began training and coaching with a group based at nearby Stirling University and came close to exchanging missives on a house in the woman’s road.

The woman said Hunter had “frightened the life out of her” and made her get counselling.

She said she couldn’t understand why he was “still wandering round the streets” and “hanging about with a clipboard” near her home after they split up.

She said: “His car was in my street so often it was like another house being built. I was living on my nerves, falling apart. He just wouldn’t go away.

“It got to the stage that I dreaded coming home.”

Sheriff Simon Collins said first of fender Hunter “persisted in a serious offence over a number of months”.

He said: “”He has to stay away from this woman and the areas where she lives.

“In many such cases, a similar offence would require the court to pass a custodial sentence.”

He said the sentence he imposed – 200 hours’ unpaid work and an 18-month non-harassment order banning him from Bridge of Allan – was a direct alternative to prison.

A plea Hunter should continue to be allowed to train on 1,371ft Dumyat Hill was rejected.

The sheriff said: “Mr Hunter has all of Scotland to train in. He does not have to use this particular part of this particular town to do so.”

Hunter has worked for Edinburgh City Council for more than 11 years, after leaving the National Australia Bank.

Last year he won the Silver Jubilee Trophy for the best age-graded performance by a male Scottish veteran Harriers member at the Scottish Masters Outdoor Championships with a time of 12.57 seconds in the 100m.

Edinburgh City Council confirmed last night that Hunter was still in post.

A council spokesman said: “This a personal matter.”

Excluded from Bridge of Allan for 18 months: Ronnie Hunter.