The boss of a north-east housebuilding firm has been convicted of domestic abuse after bombarding his ex-partner with vile messages.
Claymore Homes director John Smith, 49, kept sending the woman messages – including some that detailed his sexual fantasies – despite repeated pleas for him to stop.
Smith, who was branded “arrogant” by prosecuting fiscal depute Anne MacDonald during the trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court, accused his victim of playing with his emotions and said he had hoped the messages would rekindle their relationship.
Hundreds of pages of messages produced in court
The Crown case against Smith, of Crichie Wood, included more than 200 pages of messages to his ex asking for second chances and detailing his sexual fantasies.
His efforts to win her back included the offer of a holiday to California and for her to “dig deep” and to remember “your [sic] still my princess in every way”.
Giving evidence against her former partner, the woman spoke behind a protective screen in a closed court.
She said she broke the news of her decision to split on January 2 2023, but he refused to accept reality.
“I still just felt frustrated,” she said.
“It was just getting exhausting and upsetting. By this point, I had moved on and he wasn’t grasping it was over.”
She would repeatedly ask him to stop sending before eventually blocking the business owner.
They included: “John, I’ve explained until I’m blue in the face”, “These messages need to stop now”, and “Do you want me to block you?”
Ms MacDonald queried her if Smith ever paid attention to those requests.
“No,” she replied.
‘You utterly make me sick to the stomach’
From his own work email address, he wrote: “You have turned into the sickest most disgusting despicable human I know, you utterly make me sick to the stomach you sick selfish delusional, vile personal your [sic] a family destroyer”.
Asked how that particular email affected her, the woman said: “I was just in floods of tears stood in a car park. I just had enough.”
During his own evidence, Smith described the message as being sent in anger after learning his partner had started dating.
“I was probably angry, I guess,” he told the court.
“I’m not proud of this message – but it’s all factually correct.”
Smith took the stand in his own defence, saying the split had taken him by surprise and he was trying everything possible to win his partner back.
‘I never gave up. I always kept trying’
Additionally, he accused his ex of lying to the court and said she would send him “mixed messages” about the possibility of the pair rekindling their relationship.
“I didn’t expect it in the slightest,” he told his agent Gareth Reid.
“I couldn’t understand it. I still don’t understand it to this day, if I’m brutally honest.
“I never gave up. I always kept trying.”
It was put to Smith that he had difficulty letting go of the relationship, which he admitted.
He further accused his ex of “playing with my emotions” and that the sexual messages he sent were an attempt to “unlock” things.
In addition, he branded an accusation of pushing her within their home and throwing a set of car keys at her as “rubbish”.
‘You’re an arrogant man, Mr Smith’
During a sometimes heated cross-examination of Smith, Ms MacDonald was warned by Sheriff Craig Findlater not to insult the accused.
In a line of questioning relating to attempting to control his partner, Ms MacDonald said: “You’re an arrogant man, you were an arrogant man then, and you just could not abide the fact that you did not have control over [the victim].”
Smith replied: “I was definitely not trying to annoy [her] at that time, I assure you. I was trying everything I possibly could to try and convince her that this was a mistake.
“There were many signs of second thoughts and mixed messages coming from [her] at the time.”
The cross-examination continued with Smith saying he thought he deserved a second chance “given everything I did for [her]”.
Ms MacDonald put it to him: “Basically, Mr Smith, you’re right, she’s wrong and you say she has been telling lies in court about it. Is that correct?”
“Yes, she told lies in court yesterday,” he replied.
Ms MacDonald added: “You, of course, are always right. She’s always wrong?”
“No,” he said.
The fiscal concluded: “And that included the fact that she did not want to have any contact with you, other than to do with arranging [family matters], and she told you that repeatedly by email didn’t she?”
“Yes, that is correct. And, as I told you, she also has sent out mixed messages, which she didn’t tell the court here yesterday,” Smith said.
He denied Ms MacDonald’s suggestion that he simply misinterpreted his ex’s messages.
A sad background is not enough to justify behaviour
Sheriff Findlater ultimately found Smith guilty of abusive behaviour against his former partner, including sending her sexually explicit messages and – at one point – throwing a set of keys at her and pushing her on the body during an argument.
In his judgement, he said while the case had a “sad background”, Smith’s actions were not reasonable.
“There was a clear indication given by [her] to Mr Smith that she no longer wanted to be in a relationship with him,” he said.
“That, I assume, was not an easy decision for her to come to.
“This is a description of a difficult situation for both parties to find themselves in, but it is one which the courts and indeed society, broadly, sees on a day and daily basis.
“What happened thereafter, however, for over a year was unacceptable and indeed criminal.
Businessman ‘reluctant to take responsibility’
“In the months that followed through January 2023 to May 2024 there was, I accept, a course of conduct of abusive behaviour by Mr Smith.”
The sheriff noted the volume of documents produced and agreed by the Crown of the messages between both parties gave more weight to the testimony of the victim.
“Broadly speaking,” he said, Smith was “slightly less acceptable” in his evidence.
He added: “Despite the accused being a successful businessman … he was, even today, reluctant to take responsibility and accountability for his own actions.
“He decided how to react to the complainer and to the situation he found himself in with her seeking to end the relationship. He chose his actions, criminal as some of them were.”
Smith will now return to court again next month for sentencing.