Ex-cop Kirsop returns to Fort court over behaviour

EX-POLICE officer Thomas Kirsop was back in court last week, when he was found guilty of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards a local primary school headteacher.

Kirsop, 77, of North Ballachulish, had stood in a road way near his home, which is just along from the local school, and had adopted an intimidating and confrontational stance, staring directly at the woman when she arrived at the school for the second day of the new term on August 16 this year.

The woman told the court she had arrived for work on the day in question shortly before 9am and had spotted Kirsop standing on the white line in the middle of the road, diagonally opposite the school, saying: ‘He was pacing up and down and his stance and body language really concerned me. His hands were clenched by his sides and he had adopted a very intimidating and aggressive stance,’ she told Fiscal Depute Robert Weir.

‘His gaze was focused on me and I was afraid of what he intended to do. He is the very last person I thought would be there on the second day of term. I felt afraid and intimidated.’

A local off-duty police officer who had been outside the school at the time, described Kirsop’s behaviour to the court on the day in question as ‘strange’.

Giving evidence earlier, the police officer told how he had also spotted Kirsop standing in the road way, describing the accused ‘as if he was trying to make himself look big, standing tall, with his chest puffed out and arms by his side as if he was carrying two heavy shopping bags’.

The officer added: ‘I thought at 8.50am in the morning, it was a strange place for him to be standing and he was looking towards the school.’

When the woman had pulled her car level with the officer’s car and rolled down the window, the officer described her complexion as ‘ chalk white’.

‘She was terrified, absolutely terrified. It looked as if she was going to be sick and her hands were shaking,’ he told the court.

Defence agent John MacCall had made a submission that his client had no case to answer on any of the charges, arguing that on the first charge – of which Kirsop was ultimately found guilty - there was no corroborative evidence that his client had committed a criminal act.

‘I submit that his conduct quite simply does not amount to conduct that would place a reasonable person in a state of fear or alarm,’ said Mr MacCall.

But finding Kirsop guilty on the first charge after a threehour trial at Fort William Sheriff Court last week, Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald said she had found the evidence of the teacher credible and reliable.

On one of the other other three charges he faced, Kirsop was found not guilty of approaching or contacting the teacher while he was on a bail order with a condition banning him from approaching or contacting her, as the sheriff was unconvinced by the evidence.

On two other charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at the same location on September 4 and September 9, both while on bail, Kirsop’s defence agent successfully argued that there was no case to answer on either complaint.

Sentence on the first charge for which Kirsop was found guilty was deferred until December 5 for a criminal justice social work report.