A Perth teacher has told a court how she was targeted by a mystery stalker who bombarded her with sinister letters and unwanted gifts.
The depute head said the menacing mail – including a Valentine Card and flowers – was sent to her school and hand-delivered to her home.
She woke one morning to find the tyres of her car punctured and on another occasion, threatening graffiti had been sprayed on her wall.
Her school was also vandalised, with offensive slogans sprayed across walls, steps and windows, seemingly around her office.
The teacher told jurors at Perth Sheriff Court that after three years of torment, she received a final letter.
It was posted through her letterbox in a bright pink envelope.
The anonymous typed note was an apology for the “the pain and suffering” the sender had caused.
The writer stated she had “found god” and was “writing letters to everyone I have wronged.”
It read: “I felt so consumed with anger and hatred towards you.”
The teacher was told by the letter’s writer they wanted her and another person “to feel my pain”.
It continued: “I am so glad I did not go along with the other things I had planned for you.”
Suspect cleared
The letters were passed to police and local mum Kelly Ferguson became prime suspect.
She was interviewed and charged with stalking the teacher between March 2018 and January 2021.
Ms Ferguson, 42, was also blamed for vandalism at the school and at the teacher’s home, as part of an abusive course of conduct that caused her alleged target fear or alarm.
But after a week long trial before Sheriff Euan Duthie, jurors found the case against her not proven.
The trial heard there was no forensic evidence to link Ms Ferguson to the bulk of the deliveries.
Only one letter – mailed to the school by recorded delivery and signed by Ms Ferguson – had her fingerprints.
The handwritten note was largely about a school-related matter and on its own, was not too contentious.
Under cross-examination by Ms Ferguson’s solicitor David Holmes, the teacher said she was “alarmed” by part of the letter, which accused her of sending various items to Ms Ferguson’s house.
These included love letters, poems, a song, a Gucci belt and a vibrator.
The teacher told the court she had never sent any items to Ms Ferguson’s home.
The teacher and school involved cannot be named.
Special defence
At the trial, Ms Ferguson lodged a special defence of incrimination, blaming her friend Isla Christie.
Office worker Ms Christie, 44, told jurors she was asked by Ms Ferguson to deliver a greetings card to the teacher’s house.
Surveillance footage captured on a Ring doorbell showed Ms Christie placing the card on the windscreen of her car.
The card, which was unsigned, included the message “thank you for leaving” and made reference to “ruining families lives”.
Ms Christie said: “As far as I knew, it was just a card because the lady was leaving her job.”
The final letter was posted by a unnamed man three months later.
The court heard the graffiti sprayed on the wall of the teacher’s house included the word “Karma” and “86 21”, which prosecutors said may be a reference to the dimensions of a grave.
Photos of vandalism at the school were also shown.
The word “w*****s” was sprayed across the front door, with other obscenities scrawled on steps and walls.
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