Clearedof stalking charge

A Perthshire hypnotherapist walked free from Perth Sheriff Court last week after he was found not guilty of stalking his former partner over a sevenweek period earlier this year.

Seventy-two year-old Michael Walsh, of Craiglea, George Street, Blairgowrie, had denied causing the woman “fear or alarm” between January 20 and March 9.

It had been alleged that he repeatedly followed the female - and repeatedly attempted to speak to her - at the Cateran Cafe, High Street, Blairgowrie, and at the Fair o’ Blair, in the town’s Allan Street.

The charge also claimed that he repeatedly stared at her and loitered at both locations.

Walsh was cleared last year of sexually assaulting a teenage girl at his practice in Blairgowrie and then groping a second woman at a flat in Edinburgh.

He had denied both charges and evidence from both females had been heard during a trial which stretched over almost three months.

After hearing submissions from both prosecution and defence, Sheriff Gillian Wade said: “I am not satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt, that the accused can be found guilty of either of these offences.”

Walsh exercised his legal right and declined to give evidence from the witness box at the conclusion of the Crown case.