A 33-year-old man with “an appalling record” was jailed for 21 months and ordered to be supervised for ten months after his release for threatening to “slit the throat” of his ex-partner.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that John Christie, described as a prisoner at Inverness, was angry after he saw her and her new boyfriend throw a pair of diamond earrings he had bought into the sea.
Christie sent naked images of her to two of his acquaintances and threatened to post them online.
But Sheriff Margaret Neilson decided not to place him on the sex offenders register because the motivation was “to cause humiliation and embarrassment” rather than significant sexual gratification.
Sentence had been deferred last month on Christie when the sheriff noted that he had a bad record of convictions, after he admitted a total of six charges.
He pled guilty to sending threatening messages on December 18 to his ex-partner’s new boyfriend, sending the nude images to two men on December 18 and 19 and threatening to distribute and post online the intimate photographs.
Christie further admitted that on February 10 at the Fisherman’s Mission in Mallaig and on a journey to Fort William Police Station, he behaved in a threatening manner and shouted and swore.
On the same date at the police station, he threatened to kill his ex-partner and then made racially aggravated abusive remarks towards a police officer.
Sheriff Neilson was told that it was “the utterances of a drunk”.
Fiscal depute Ross Carvel said that Christie’s relationship ended on September 14, and he was jailed shortly after.
But on his release on December 18, the first of the offences took place with him sending the new boyfriend messages challenging him to fight and saying “you are dead”.
He then sent the nude photographs via text message and a link to a Dropbox folder to the two men before sending messages to the new boyfriend, intimating he was intending posting them online.
When police traced Christie almost two months later to Mallaig, the remaining three offences were committed when he was arrested.
Sentencing him, Sheriff Neilson said: “There is no alternative to custody. You have an appalling record.”