A man who waged a campaign of terror against his ex-girlfriend has been banned from Shetland for four years.
Craig Burgoyne bombarded Rebecca Laidlaw with phone calls and warned her she would have acid thrown in her face.
The jilted stable hand also hacked into her social media account and made private messages between her and her new boyfriend public.
Father-of-one Burgoyne told Jason Henry he was a “dead man walking” and left Miss Laidlaw terrified to leave her remote island home.
A sheriff spared the 26-year-old a prison sentence yesterday, despite the fact he had previous convictions for a similar offence and assault.
But he could be jailed for up to five years if he breaches an “exceptionally wide-ranging” harassment order banning him from Shetland and from contacting his ex-girlfriend.
Burgoyne was also ordered to do 300 hours unpaid work when he appeared for sentence at Stirling Sheriff Court.
He was convicted of stalking 22-year-old Miss Laidlaw last month following a two-day trial.
The court heard he made private Facebook messages between her and her new boyfriend public, so they could be read by all her 481 online friends, including her parents.
Then he changed her password so that she could not delete the “graphic and intimate” exchanges between Miss Laidlaw and Mr Henry, and sent a text to a friend boasting that he had “nailed her on Facebook”.
A court was told the ordeal Miss Laidlaw suffered was known as being “Fraped”.
Miss Laidlaw said in evidence that she received a menacing call at her parents’ home in Shetland early on October 14 last year, about two months after breaking up with Burgoyne.
She had been woken even earlier by her new boyfriend Mr Henry, who warned her that their “graphic” private messages had been put on her Facebook page.
Burgoyne then rang and said he was coming to Shetland.
Miss Laidlaw told the court: “He said somebody would throw acid in my face for being so vain. He was shouting that and sounded loud and angry.”
Sheriff Wyllie Robertson told Burgoyne yesterday: “It is as clear as day that you committed this offence, which involved not only threats of a disturbing and nasty nature, but also the posting of very private and intimate communications.
“This was done deliberately, and with the intention of causing your former partner maximum embarrassment and was calculated to humiliate her, knowing her friends and parents would see them.
“This is not the first time you have been involved in this kind of communication with a former partner, and the threats you made to Miss Laidlaw have to be set against the background of your conviction for violence.
“This offence does merit a custodial sentence. You have not previously served a custodial sentence, so I am bound to consider the alternative of unpaid work.”
Sheriff Robertson warned Burgoyne that if he breached the ban on visiting Shetland or contacting Miss Laidlaw, he would be brought back to court and could be jailed for five years.
Burgoyne’s agent, solicitor Frazer McCready, said that a Communications Act conviction against Burgoyne from 2010 involved a call he made to the mother of his child, and was dealt with by probation and community service.
Details of Burgoyne’s previous conviction for violence were not given.
A court insider said afterwards: “Non-harassment orders banning somebody from visiting their ex-partner’s street, or even small town, are fairly common.
“But the sheer size of the area now out-of-bounds to Burgoyne until nearly 2020 is exceptional, even if he would have to take a plane or ferry if he really wanted to get there.”
Burgoyne refused to comment.