Council official who stalked ex is banned from entire town
A senior council official who stalked his former partner near her home almost daily has avoided a jail sentence – but has been banned from the victim’s home town.
Chartered Banker Ronnie Hunter, 56, who now works for Edinburgh City Council as its treasury and banking finance manager, was banned from Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, for 18 months.
The former international athlete, who has run for Scotland and Britain, was found guilty last month of stalking Annabelle Cameron.
A council finance boss who stalked his former partner for seven months and nearly bought a house in her street was spared jail yesterday – but 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, Stirlingshire, for 18 months.
Sheriff Simon Collins also sentenced Hunter to 200 hours of unpaid work.
Sheriff Collins also rejected Hunter’s lawyer’s plea that Hunter should continue to be allowed to train on Dumyat Hill, a classic hill race venue, in Bridge of Allan, saying: “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, 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 Annabelle Cameron 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.
Mr Maguire said: “There are implications potentially in respect of his professional life and the fallout from that is yet to be clarified.
“There was a misreading and misunderstanding about Ms Cameron’s feelings.”
The court heard Ms Cameron, 57, a social services planning and commissioning officer for Clackmannshire Council, 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 from the town 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 road where Ms Cameron lived
Ms Cameron 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 their relationship finished.
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 Collins said that Hunter had “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.”
Sheriff Collins said the sentence he imposed – the community payback order with unpaid work, along with an 18-month non-harassment order banning him from Bridge of Allan – was a direct alternative to prison.