A man has admitted sending sinister Facebook threats to a Perthshire woman who battered a six-month-old baby girl and left her brain damaged.
William McPhee, from Rattray, near Blairgowrie, fired off a series of menacing messages to Shannon Soutter in January.
He called her a “pure beast” and told her to leave town because he knew “at least” three people who wanted her dead.
Soutter had returned to the area after receiving a community sentence for assaulting and endangering the life of a child at a house in Arbroath over a period of two months in 2018.
The youngster suffered fractures to her skull, ribs and ankle.
Medics described her prognosis as “poor” and said she may have permanent blindness.
McPhee, of Glenalmond Road, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court on Wednesday and admitted a single charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear or alarm, by sending messages on social media to Soutter.
He repeatedly made threats, derogatory remarks and threats of violence.
Not sorry for sending messages
Fiscal depute Andrew Harding said: “After her conviction, Soutter received a significant amount of media attention.
“She returned to Perthshire to be with her family.”
He said she was at her home at around 7.10pm on January 25, when she received the first of McPhee’s messages.
It read: “Are you the beastly b****** who battered that kid?”
Another message followed: “If I see you ’round Blair, I’d batter the f*** out of you, and so would my missus.”
McPhee, 26, then posted: “If I was you, I’d get to f*** as far as possible, because I (can) count three people who want you dead.”
He sent a fourth message, describing Soutter as a “pure beast”.
Mr Harding said Soutter contacted the police.
McPhee attended for questioning at Blairgowrie police station several days later.
“He confirmed to police that he sent those messages,” Mr Harding told the court.
“And he said he was not sorry that he sent them.”
An assault on the community
Solicitor Billy Somerville said that his client had deleted the messages soon after they were sent.
“They were taken down very quickly.
“However, they would have pinged up on Ms Soutter’s phone and she would have read them immediately.
“Understandably, she would have been very upset.”
Sheriff William Wood deferred sentence until July 14 for background reports.
“This was, in effect, an assault on the community,” he said.
Unpaid work
Soutter walked free from court in September 2019, after a judge ruled it was “neither appropriate or necessary to lock her up”.
Soutter initially claimed she had been “rocking” the child and that she “may” have bumped her head off a table.
The court was told some of the injuries had resulted from “shaking” the child.
The rib fractures had been caused by “gripping” the child.
Lord Turnbull said Soutter, of Blairgowrie, had been struggling with a “history of depression” and other personal issues at the time.
“The circumstances are so unusual that a degree of understanding, and some mercy, leads to the conclusion it is neither appropriate or necessary to impose a custodial sentence,” he said.
Soutter sobbed as she was instead ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work as part of a three-year community payback order.
