Ex-policeman made threat to kill Highland grandmother as she worked in garden

An ex-policeman who said he would kill his neighbour’s mother has been found guilty of threatening behaviour.

Donald Bain targeted the pensioner as she worked in the garden of her daughter’s Inverness home – calling her a b**** and a w***e and leaving her “terrified”.

The behaviour was witnessed by the woman’s 22-year-old grandson, who said his grandmother was “shaken up” following the encounter in Birchwood Road on June 8 last year.

Bain, 73, denied the single charge of threatening or abusive behaviour at Inverness Sheriff Court but was identified by his victim and her grandson in court.

The woman, who is retired, told Sheriff Sara Matheson that she had gone to her daughter’s house to do some garden chores with her grandson when she was approached by Bain.

He asked her about her grandson’s van that was parked nearby and when she explained who it belonged to, Bain called her a “liar” and a “b****”.

She said: “He was getting closer and closer. I was walking backwards and he was coming closer to me – it was quite frightening.”

The woman said Bain then called her a “w****”.

Shortly after this, a cat ran under her car and Bain told her: “If you go near that cat I will f***ing kill you.”

Under cross-examination from defence solicitor, Samantha Morrison, the woman explained she didn’t know Bain well enough to judge if he would follow through on his threat but said: “The way he said it sounded as if he would.”

Previous court case involving neighbour

Ms Morrison suggested the altercation had been part of an “ongoing dispute” between Bain and the woman’s daughter. 

In February this year, Bain was ordered by the same court to carry out unpaid work after he was found guilty of acting in an aggressive manner as well as uttering threats whilst brandishing a knife.

The woman’s grandson, who was in the back garden at the start of the altercation, heard Bain making the threat to the woman and said it left his grandmother “shaken up”.

“She was terrified,” he added.

Bain – a former police officer with Fife Constabulary – did not take to the witness box in his own defence and following representations from the prosecution and defence Sheriff Mathseon told him: “I believe both the Crown witnesses” and found him guilty of the charge.

She fined Bain, of Birchwood Road, Inverness, £320.