The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Sex offender jailed for threatening teenager
String of bizarre incidents left Dundee boy and his mother terrified
A man once accused of murdering his own father was yesterday locked up after he was convicted of standing outside a 15-year-old boy’s bedroom in the dead of night and shining a torch in the window while wearing a doctor’s coat.
Convicted sex offender James Donaldson previously served a four-year prison term for lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards a 13-year-old boy in 1989.
He now faces a new sentence after a jury found him guilty of following the lad, sending him a creepy letter, shining a torch in his bedroom, staring at him and approaching him over the course of more than a year.
A three-day trial at Dundee Sheriff Court heard of a string of unnerving incidents that left the boy, who cannot be identified, and his mother, terrified.
A jury was told how Donaldson developed an infatuation with the boy and was caught repeatedly walking past his home, through the gardens in the middle of the night and shining a torch in the windows.
In one incident Donaldson stood directly outside the boy’s bedroom window in the middle of the night wearing a doctor’s coat and shining the torch in his window.
Over a period of weeks he was spotted staring at the boy in the street and on one occasion walked up to him at a bus stop and tried to engage him in a conversation.
On another occasion Donaldson – who has repeatedly made public calls to be formally cleared of his father’s killing – sent the boy a letter that he signed with a kiss.
The family only got respite when he was jailed over another incident, only for him to start up again when he was released.
Donaldson, 52, a prisoner at HMP Perth, originally faced a charge of stalking.
A jury found him guilty of the alternative charge of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner towards the boy at various streets in Dundee on various occasions between October 1 2016 and December 4 2017.
Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC deferred sentence until next month for social work background reports and remanded him in custody meantime.
She earlier told him to “expect a significant custodial sentence” over the offence.
Donaldson was arrested and charged with murdering his father, Harry Murray, in 1995 and appeared on petition at Dundee Sheriff Court.
He was fully committed for trial over the allegation and spent 76 days on remand before being released.
Mr Murray, 59, died after being assaulted as he patrolled the factory site where he worked on March 31 that year.
Donaldson was never brought to trial but prosecutors have reserved the right to raise proceedings against him again should new evidence come to light.