A sheriff has been forced to intervene in the case of a high-risk sex offender after it was revealed that no hospital bed is available for him to undergo a psychiatric assessment.
John Coltart, 39, stalked an Aberdeen medical student by sending her sinister messages about Satan and claiming she was his wife
Coltart had never met his victim but bombarded the woman with unwanted messages over nine months – and even claimed on Facebook that they were in a sexual relationship.
The Glenrothes man was eventually arrested after turning up at Aberdeen’s Foresterhill medical campus in a “hyper” state and saying he wanted to pay the woman a “surprise visit”.
Coltart has appeared in Aberdeen Sheriff Court four times between April 21 and June 22 this year while awaiting a criminal justice social work report, a restriction of liberty order assessment and a psychiatric report to be carried out.
The psychiatric assessment order was made on July 13, with Coltart being kept in HMP Grampian as he waits for a hospital bed to become available.
Sheriff Andrew Miller told Coltart he was “taking a particular interest” in his case because he wanted to ensure that “everything that can be done is done” to identify a suitable hospital placement with NHS Fife.
During the hearing, Coltart stated that he and his wife “own HMP Grampian and HMP Perth” and claimed both prisons had been gifted to him by the Queen.
A spokesperson for the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership said that bed availability within its mental health service “continually fluctuates as patients are admitted and discharged”.
“However, we continue to care for very many patients with forensic needs who require inpatient psychiatric care and treatment,” they said.
“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 high-risk 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 this year Coltart approached a receptionist at The Suttie Centre within the Aberdeen hospital campus “acting hyper” and demanded to speak to the student, claiming that 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 Friday in the hope that a hospital bed will become available in that time.
Mental Health Minister Kevin Stewart said:
“While individual NHS boards are responsible for mental health care bed allocation, we are engaging with service providers to co-ordinate provision at a national level to boost capacity.
“This will ensure anyone who poses a danger to the community can be seen in a safe and secure location to protect the wider public.”
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