Man left intimate images of woman in the street

COURT: Pictures scattered in village and at metal works in Perth

A sheriff has condemned the “deplorable” behaviour of a former businessman who left topless and intimate images of a woman across locations in Perthshire and Fife.

Allister Linton, 65, pled guilty to two charges of statutory breach of the peace.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard how residents in Abernethy found topless pictures of a woman scattered about the village’s Main Street, with other images of the same woman appearing under the windscreen wipers of cars at a metal works in Perth and in Newburgh, Fife.

The victim contacted police, who also received a complaint from another woman who had found 25 photographs of herself in underwear “lying on the threshold of her hallway” in Stirlingshire. Sheriff Christopher Shead sentenced Linton to 180 hours of unpaid work and placed him under social work supervision for 12 months.

Acourt has heard how a former businessman left “intimate” pictures of a woman lying around a Perthshire village.

Residents in Abernethy who picked up the prints, one thinking they were discarded postcards, were shocked to find they were of the woman, topless.

Prints ended up in other areas, including under the wipers of cars at a steelworks in Perth.

Allister Linton, 65, admitted taking “various” consensual topless photos of the woman, using his mobile phone and a camera.

Around the beginning of September, the woman was in a garden when she was approached by another woman, the court heard.

Prosecutor Robbie Mcdougall said: “The witness told her she had found various topless photographs of her scattered around Main Street in Abernethy.”

She handed the victim the photos she had picked up and the woman realised they were similar to pictures she knew Linton had taken of her.

The same day, another woman found three photos of the victim lying on the ground in School Wynd.

A few days later, a woman was out for a walk in Glenfoot Road, Abernethy, when she noticed a photo on the ground.

Mr Mcdougall said: “Initially thinking it was a postcard, she picked it up before realising it was a topless image of the woman.”

Similar photographs were found in Newburgh around September 22.

This time they had the woman’s address stamped on the back, along with her name and an obscenity. The same evening the woman was at work when she received a Facebook message from a member of staff at Mcgarrie’s Metal & Fabrication Works on Shore Road, Perth.

It stated various different photographs of her had been found stuck to the windscreens of employees’ vehicles.

Mr Mcdougall said the woman “had no known association or connections with Mcgarrie’s Metal & Fabrication Works and had no idea why the photographs had been distributed there, so she contacted police”.

Further photos were found under the lid of a bin, and on October 13 Linton was arrested at an address on Main Street, Abernethy.

Police also received a complaint from another woman who, also last October, returned from work to her home in Stirlingshire to find 25 photographs “lying on the threshold of her hallway”.

Mr Mcdougall said they showed her “in a state of undress, in lingerie”.

She identified them as having been taken by the accused while they were in a relationship together but was taken aback as she had had no contact with Linton for several years.

Linton, now of Carrick Place, Camelon, Falkirk, a former joinery businessman and a first offender, pled guilty to two charges of statutory breach of the peace.

Solicitor Gordon Addison, defending, claimed Linton had been “attacked at his place of work by one of these women, and stripped of his top. Despite the fact that there were a number of witnesses, it wasn’t followed up by the authorities at all”.

Mr Addison added: “He is a somewhat eccentric character with an unusual background and lifestyle who has had a number of partners.” He said Linton was “ashamed” and now “spends much of his time alone, kayaking and climbing hills”.

At Falkirk Sheriff Court yesterday, Sheriff Christopher Shead sentenced Linton to 180 hours of unpaid work and placed him under social work supervision for 12 months. He also imposed a non-harassment order, forbidding him from contacting his victims for two years.

He said: “Your conduct can reasonably be characterised as deplorable.”

SENTENCED: Allister Linton was told by a sheriff that his conduct could “reasonably be characterised as deplorable”.