A stalker who took a knife to his victim’s home because he wanted to murder her new partner will be free within days after he was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Francis Haldane has been in jail since he was arrested in June, and because he is entitled to be released after serving half of his sentence, he will walk free in the next 10 days.
He will be free to contact his ex-wife Helen Haldane after a sheriff refused to impose a non-harassment order.
Haldane had been convicted of stalking and threatening Mrs Haldane, 42, and when she contacted police on June 15 officers raced to her home.
He was found with a kitchen knife in his pocket and told officers: “I was going to jump on the train to Glasgow and stab the guy Helen is seeing.
“I want to kill him.”
Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson told Dundee Sheriff Court: “He said he had seen the couple together previously and if he saw them again he would kill his wife’s new partner.”
Haldane, 40, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pleaded guilty on indictment to charges of carrying an offensive weapon and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner likely to cause fear and alarm at addresses in Arbroath.
Defence solicitor Nick Whelan said: “He had learned she had formed a relationship with the person referred to and he took it very badly.
“He had taken drink to cope with the news he had been given and very foolishly picked up the knife.”
Sheriff Alistair Carmichael jailed Haldane for eight months, but declined to impose a non-harassment order as his estranged wife was not the target of the offence.