Serial stalker jailed for 37 months after telling victim ‘Hell is coming’

A jealous serial stalker has been jailed after he travelled around Fife with a rope, hammer, pliers and a Darth Vader mask in the boot of a car, saying he wanted to use them to harm his former partner.

Kevin Spratley had already warned the woman: “Hell is coming”.

He was jailed for 37 months yesterday.

The 48-year-old bombarded his ex with texts and emails, repeatedly turned up at her home uninvited and made chilling threats of violence.

Sheriff Derek Hamilton noted Spratley had three previous convictions for stalking.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard Spratley and his 48-year-old victim’s “onoff” relationship had ended in January last year.

The former gas engineer kept contacting her via different mobile phones.

He threatened to “hit her where it will hurt

– family and financially” and sent a message to the Chopsticks Chinese Takeway in Markinch, where she worked, claiming she had a “severe issue with alcohol”.

Her boss shortly afterwards terminated her employment.

Spratley turned up at the woman’s house in Kinglassie, shouting: “You are scum.”

Later, he tried to get in through her window.

In other calls, Spratley asked her: “Are you ready to die? Hell is coming.”

After he voice-messaged the woman’s mother, calling her daughter a series of abusive names he was arrested and appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on March 2 2020, and released on bail conditions not to approach or contact her.

He continued to message her and 10 days afterwards police stopped a stolen Vauxhall Corsa in Glenrothes.

Two men ran off, leaving the driver to talk to police.

Spratley, by now on the run, was arrested after stealing a different car and abandoning it.

Spratley, of Glenrothes, admitted domestic abuse, car theft, possession of an offensive weapon and breach of bail.

The jail term was backdated to March 2020 when Spratley was first remanded and he was given a year’s supervised release order.

Kevin Spratley.