Stalker can’t be sentenced due to hospital bed wait

Adangerous stalker is still languishing in prison and unable to be sentenced – almost five months after a hospital bed was ordered so his mental health could be assessed.

High-risk sex offender Jon Coltart, 39, has been locked up in HMP Grampian since April 20 while he waits for a psychiatric bed to become available in the NHS Fife area.

He has pleaded guilty to stalking an Aberdeen medical student by sending her sinister messages about Satan and claiming she was his wife.

Sheriff Andrew Miller, who has personally intervened in the case, described the 20-week wait for a suitable hospital bed as “very unfortunate”.

Addressing Coltart, he said: “Your case has obviously called on a number of occasions for the court to find you a suitable bed in a hospital.

“Unfortunately I have to tell you that still no bed has become available for you.

“I think it’s very unfortunate that this continues to be the case.”

Sheriff Miller said he had been informed the latest date for an available bed would be September 26.

Sheriff Miller also told Coltart that he had been in contact with medical professionals at Aberdeen’s Royal Cornhill Hospital to see if a bed was free there.

However, the sheriff said there was no availability there either.

The psychiatric assessment order was continued on July 13, with Coltart being kept in HMP Grampian as he waits for a hospital bed to become available.

During the latest hearing, Coltart stated that he couldn’t have been responsible for any of his crimes because he and his “wife” were “both living in Chicago” at the time. “We were living with Dr House,” he said.

Sheriff Miller asked Coltart: “You’re not talking about the TV doctor, are you?”

To which Coltart responded that he was.

A spokeswoman for the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership said: “Capacity for the admission of patients across our mental health service continually fluctuates as patients are admitted and discharged as dictated by needs.

“Within this, we continue to care for many patients with forensic needs who require inpatient psychiatric care and treatment.

“As with all patients, the decision to admit those with forensic mental health requirements is based on a clinical assessment, with the place of care determined by the individual’s particular needs.”

Coltart, who has convictions for sexual offences dating back to 2011, has been described by Police Scotland as a highrisk sex offender.

When he pleaded guilty in April, the court was told he used a photograph of an Aberdeen medical student as his profile picture and posted about how she was “beautiful” and that he was “so proud of her”.

Coltart claimed the pair had met and married between 2007 and 2010 when he was a surgeon in Glenrothes.

But the woman told police she didn’t know Coltart and “had never met him”.

During his numerous messages to the woman, Coltart mentioned “suicide”, “fire” and “Satan”.

On March 24 Coltart approached a receptionist at The Suttie Centre within the Aberdeen hospital campus “acting hyper” and demanded to speak to the student, claiming she was his ex-wife.

He pleaded guilty to causing the woman to suffer fear and alarm between June 19 2021 and March 24 2022.

Sheriff Miller further deferred sentence on Coltart, of Brae Court, Glenrothes, to September 23 in the hope that a hospital bed will become available in that time.

HIGH-RISK: Jon Coltart admitting sending sinister messages saying he was Satan.