A lovelorn Keith man has appeared in court after sending his former partner a string of abusive and threatening text messages.
Michael Blake, 64, admitted anonymously sending messages referring to Alison Watt as “scummy”, “obese” and “like a hippo” after she began a relationship with another man.
Elgin Sheriff Court heard that Blake, of Tarrymount on Balloch Road, had been in a relationship with Ms Watt between 2004 and 2008.
When the partnership broke down the pair continued to share a house.
However, when Ms Watt began seeing a new man she started to receive unsettling text messages from a mobile phone number she did not recognise.
One text warned Miss Watt to keep her “scummy, fat, obese body away from Graham”.
Another read: “Don’t bother to contact us at all, or there will be repercussions on your part. Just stay away. You’re like a hippo.”
Ms Watt discovered the origin of the texts when she found an empty mobile phone box in Blake’s vehicle, displaying the number they came from.
Blake’s solicitor David Adams said his client had indulged in “wishful thinking as far as the relationship was concerned.”
He said: “He’s very upset with the whole matter.”
Blake also admitted vandalising the property at Birkenburn that Ms Watt shares with her new partner on December 29.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood fined Blake £500 and issued him with a non-harassment order, barring him from contacting Ms Watt or sending her any sort of electronic message for two years.
And the sheriff warned him: “Breach of this order usually results in imprisonment.”