FARMER ‘RELENTLESSLY TORMENTED TENANTS’
A FRIGHTENING farmer who ‘relentlessly’ tormented his tenants for more than a year and placed the women in states of fear and alarm has been handed a fine at Greenock Sheriff Court.
Robert Baxter - who was originally charged with stalking his victims - turned on them after 17 years of being their landlord following the break-up of his marriage which forced him to move into a property on his land.
Baxter, 64 - who runs Hattrick Farm between Kilmacolm and Bridge of Weir - engaged in a course of threatening or abusive behaviour towards a mother and daughter.
He pleaded guilty to repeatedly staring through windows and waving at one of the women when she was inside her home, following her when she was travelling in her car, failing to keep a safe braking distance and driving in an intimidating manner, and shouting a derogatory remark at the other woman.
Baxter admitted harassing and intimidating the victims between
January 2020 and May 2021.
A prosecutor told the court: “In January 2020 the relationship broke down resulting in the witnesses taking the accused via civil action.
“The accused would drive past the house which the woman was staying in with her family.
“He drove past, slowed down, reversed back and forth and stared into the witness’s windows.
“On occasions he would drive onto the wrong side of the road, stop next to the garden wall, and either sit there and stare or wave at those within the property. He did this on numerous occasions.”
The procurator fiscal depute said Baxter’s behaviour continued and involved him driving close to the women’s cars as they were going along Craigbet Road in Quarrier’s Village to their house.
The fiscal depute said: “From January until October 2020 he then drove past a window of the home, slowed and glared into it numerous times per day.
“This behaviour is described as a relentless daily annoyance at first.
“The witnesses contacted police after being caused fear and alarm.”
In August 2020, Baxter drove past a vehicle which the woman’s daughter and her boyfriend were in and called her an ‘a***hole’.
The court heard the complainers have since moved to another address in the area.
Baxter’s lawyer said: “He separated from his wife and moved to the farm where the complainer was living as he had nowhere else to go.
“She was a tenant and was served appropriate notice and since then the relationship deteriorated.”
The solicitor told the court that relations between the parties had been ‘peaceful’ for 17 years up to that point - but Baxter was unhappy after discovering one of his properties had been vandalised, allegedly causing £10,000 worth of damage.
The lawyer added: “He has no previous convictions and is a man of good character.
“He has learned his lesson in respect of this matter.
“It has been hanging over him for some time.
“It is nearly three years down the line and there has been nothing else since.
“He has been keeping his distance from them.”
Passing sentence, Sheriff Clair McLachlan highlighted the ‘somewhat unpleasant nature’ of the offence but said she had taken into account the fact that Baxter was a first offender, as well as character references provided to the court and the background of the case.
Baxter was fined £320 to be paid within 28 days.
A six-month non-harassment order was also imposed.