The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Policeman cleared of stalking for third time
COURT: Officer accused of nipping his partner and forcing her to end a pregnancy
A serving police officer has been cleared of stalking a lover for the third time.
Scott McGregor had already been removed from frontline duties and now faces a further internal investigation after being cleared of stalking and domestic violence for the second time in just over a year.
McGregor was described in court as “controlling” and accused of forcing Samantha Abbot, 32, to have an abortion.
There was uproar after the 29-yearold, from Perth, was again cleared of assault and stalking, and a relative of Miss Abbot shouted: “How many women’s lives is he allowed to ruin?”
Perth Sheriff Court was told McGregor repeatedly pinched Miss Abbot’s skin until she was covered in bruises and lifted her off the ground with his hands round her throat.
He was accused of tailgating her, kept turning up at her work uninvited and while he was supposed to be working, appearing in random places in a way which suggested he was somehow tracking her and driving slowly past her friends homes to check on her.
But Sheriff Keith O’Mahoney cleared him after considering his behaviour amounted to “the usual norms of rowing”.
Miss Abbot wept as she told Perth Sheriff Court McGregor forced her to terminate a pregnancy during a 20-month long campaign of “intimidating and obsessive” behaviour.
She said McGregor threatened to commit suicide if she had their baby.
She said she suspected McGregor had secretly placed a tracking device on her phone as he would turn up in random places to find her.
Depute fiscal Tina Dickie said: “She was left anxious and very low. She was intimidated and felt that she had been controlled by the accused.”
Witnesses told the trial McGregor was seen repeatedly nipping Miss Abbot so hard his knuckles went white. One described her as being covered in bruises.
Sheriff O’Mahoney said it was an unusual case because most of McGregor’s behaviour was not in dispute. However, he found McGregor not guilty of assault by repeatedly nipping Miss Abbot because some witnesses had described it as “toy fighting” and “mucking about”.
He found the stalking charge not proven and said: “Some allowance has to be made for the tumultuous nature of every relationship.”
In July 2017, McGregor was cleared of stalking Katherine Allan between October 2007 and May 2010 and stalking and assaulting Kirstyn Fullerton between January 1 and February 21 2015.
Miss Allan, 28, told the court McGregor stalked her on and off for three years after their year-long relationship fizzled out.
She said he tailed her in his car for several miles and entered her bedroom uninvited as she recovered from a car crash.
He had been accused of stalking and assaulting Miss Fullerton, lying in front of her car and secretly accessing her social media accounts.