A jealous stalker hacked his ex’s Facebook page, fitted a tracking device to her car, superglued a birthday card to the windscreen and left a vibrator on the roof.
David Groves claimed to have rekindled his relationship with the woman but ignored repeated requests to leave her alone.
The 40-year-old hacked into her Facebook account and blocked another man, tracked her vehicle to his house and left an unwanted sexual “present” on top of the car.
Groves’ victim became suspicious as he would call her and ask where she was going whenever she got into her car.
She eventually found the tracker and reported the matter to the police, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
‘The court takes these offences incredibly seriously’
Fiscal depute Lydia Ross said the couple broke up in March 2022 and had no contact for around five months.
She told the court: “In October 2022, the accused hacked into the complainer’s Facebook and blocked a male.”
When the woman noticed the man was no longer visible on her account, she checked her privacy settings and saw that Groves had logged into her page from his mobile phone.
In December, she began to feel like something was “not right” and like Groves may be “tracking” her.
Ms Ross explained: “Every time she got into her car, the accused would call – asking where she was going.”
He would also ask unusual questions like where she had her eyebrows done.
In January, the woman took a trip to Aboyne to visit someone, which was outwith her usual routine.
She later found she had a missed call and a number of messages from Groves “asking questions about what she was doing”.
She told him she felt as if he was stalking her and that he seemed to phone every time she got in the car.
On another occasion, after the pair had arranged to meet, Groves asked to use some beard oil that was in the woman’s room.
She agreed, but when checking on him a few minutes later, she found him rifling through her bedside table.
Ms Ross said: “She told him this made her uncomfortable and asked him to leave, which he did.”
On January 4, Groves sent her four messages that she did not respond to.
Another four messages followed the next day before she eventually replied and said she did not want to talk to him.
He requested a face-to-face meeting but the woman declined, saying she was not comfortable with that.
‘Literally just missed you’
During this time, Groves admitted to the woman that he’d hacked into her Facebook account.
On January 6, worried that Groves was tracking her through her phone, she got a new mobile and also emptied out her car in case a device was inside the vehicle.
In response to further messages that evening, the woman told Groves to stop messaging her.
At 7pm, she visited the home of the man that Groves had previously blocked on her Facebook account.
An hour later, Groves sent her a message, reading: “There’s a present on the roof of your car.
“I’m sure [the male] can put it to more use than you and I did.”
The distressed woman went outside to retrieve the “present” – a box containing a vibrator.
More than a dozen further messages from Groves followed, making threats to turn up at her work, calling her names and making comments about knowing where the man lived.
He also warned that if her car was still outside the man’s address in the morning, there may be “an issue”.
Shortly after 6am, the man went outside to check that Groves was not in the street before the woman then drove home.
She arrived at her home at 6.30am and left her car outside.
Half an hour later, Groves messaged her, saying: “Well done. Literally just missed you”.
‘He does deeply regret his actions’
She then noticed a birthday card she had given to Groves was superglued onto her windscreen.
The woman removed the card and drove to work where she asked a friend to check the vehicle for her.
On checking the car, he found a “black metallic box on the underside of it”.
Writing on the box indicated it was a tracking device.
The woman blocked Groves’ number but later received an email from him calling her a “lying, cheating piece of s***”.
She then took the tracker to the police station and reported the matter.
After noticing the device was at the police station, Groves sent another email, stating: “Sad. All I wanted was my stuff back”.
Groves, of Middle Park, Inverurie, pled guilty to a charge of stalking.
His defence agent Debbie Ginniver said that, although the couple did break up in March 2022, her client’s position was that they had rekindled their relationship over the summer.
‘Very close to a custodial sentence’
She said Groves accepted placing the tracker on the car, but that it was only there for around a week before being discovered.
“He has now reflected that this is not normal behaviour during the course of a relationship,” Ms Ginniver said.
The solicitor explained that Groves fully cooperated with the police.
“He does deeply regret his actions and he is genuinely sorry for the distress he has caused.
“He advises he wasn’t of sound mind at the time and struggled to appropriately manage his emotions,” she added.
Sheriff Garry Sutherland told Groves: “This is a very serious matter. The court takes these kinds of offences incredibly seriously.
“You came very, very close to a custodial sentence.”
Instead, the sheriff handed Groves 60 hours of unpaid work, two years of supervision and a requirement to complete the Caledonian rehabilitation programme for abusive men.
He also imposed a two-year non-harassment order.
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