Stalker spared jail over threats to MSP and BBC reporter
A FATHERS’ rights campaigner has narrowly avoided jail after being convicted of threatening an MSP and a BBC reporter.
Brian McKerrow threatened SNP politician Christina McKelvie and repeatedly phoned Panorama journalist sam Poling.
hamilton sheriff Court heard Miss McKelvie say McKerrow, of Larkhall, Lanarkshire, had threatened to ‘take up arms’ against her if she would not take on his case.
the pair met while Miss McKelvie, MSP for hamilton, Larkhall and stonehouse, was campaigning in hamilton during the 2011 holyrood elections.
McKerrow, 42, had sought her assistance in obtaining access to his children but he ranted at the politician and her staff after he was told she couldn’t help.
Miss McKelvie told the court she was so concerned for her safety she even bought a dog. she said: ‘At one point he told me he knew people in the military who would sort us out.
‘he then demanded a meeting with me which he said would be historic, which put me in a state of fear and alarm. he said he would take up arms against me.’
McKerrow also contacted Miss Poling, who had initially shown an interest in making a programme about his campaign for fathers’ rights.
following a meeting with him, Miss Poling withdrew from the project but after enduring nearly a year of calls and contact from McKerrow, she reported him to BBC security chiefs in May 2012.
she told the trial she was left terrified after McKerrow told her during one phone call that she was going to be ‘extinguished’.
Miss Poling, who regularly goes undercover with hardened criminals during her investigations, added that McKerrow’s threats had frightened her more than other incidents in which criminals had threatened her with guns and acid attacks. she said: ‘he said he was going to come to the BBC with his campaign men.
‘I felt unnerved by what he was saying. It got to the point where I was scared to answer my phone.
‘It was invading my working day and my private life. I felt scared and I hadn’t felt that way before. I was very concerned about what he would do; he seemed as if he meant every word.
‘I didn’t want to report it to the police because I felt that would put him over the edge and it would make him do something that would be more serious.’
sheriff Vincent smith ordered McKerrow to carry out 300 hours of community service as a direct alternative to jail.
McKerrow said he plans to appeal.