A Stirling student stalked a trade union boss for nearly three years and bombarded him with “increasingly unhinged” social media messages that made him fear for his safety.
Amanda Heneghan harassed Nick McGowan-Lowe with a steady stream of “frightening” posts, including a clip of hit TV show Breaking Bad, which was taken as a threat.
Mr McGowan-Lowe, who is the National Union of Journalist’s Scottish Organiser, told Perth Sheriff Court how the messages began flooding in after he turned down her offer of having an affair.
The 49-year-old photojournalist from Braco said she set up new accounts on different social media platforms to contact him after he blocked her.
Heneghan, 52, was found guilty after trial of engaging in a course of conduct that caused Mr McGowan-Lowe fear or alarm between February 2 2020 and December 28 2022.
Thoughts of ‘romantic liaison’
Sheriff William Wood told her: “There was this ongoing back-and-forth that may have led you to believe that a romantic liaison was perhaps in the offing at that time.
“Having said that, when you sent a message offering a relationship, Mr McGowan-Lowe rejected that.
“And in your first engagement with police, they made it quite clear that you had to stop but you did not do that.”
The sheriff accepted she had not meant to cause her victim distress.
“But you ought to have been aware that what you were doing would have caused a considerable amount of fear or alarm.
“Accordingly I have to find you guilty.”
Sustained campaign of harassment
Sheriff Wood declined to defer sentence for further reports and assessments.
He said: “This seems to have arrived at the time of a perfect storm for you.
“You had difficulties at the time and you have taken steps to resolve those difficulties.
“In the circumstances, I think you have been deterred by this process sufficiently.”
Heneghan, of Cornton, Stirling, was admonished but ordered not to contact or speak to her victim for 10 years.
Speaking after the hearing, Mr McGowan-Lowe, 49, said: “I’m glad this matter has come to an end and I am pleased the accused has sought help for her alcoholism.
“That however does not excuse the sustained campaign of harassment she was found guilty of, or the upset it caused over many years.”
Running club
The court heard Heneghan first contacted Mr McGowan-Lowe through a running forum in May 2019.
They met up at Park Run events and continued chatting through social media.
Some initial exchanges appeared to be flirtatious, although Mr McGowan-Lowe said he had no memory of sending such messages.
In one, he purportedly told her: “I like my toast like I like my women: Hot, seedy and covered in butter.”
When she replied “I’m one out of three,” Mr McGowan-Lowe said: “Definitely the first”.
Mr McGowan-Lowe accepted he may have given her the wrong impression.
He told the trial he received another message from her via Facebook in February 2020.
“The message was to the effect that she didn’t know my intentions, but she asked whether I was willing to have an affair with her,” he said.
Mr McGowan-Lowe tried to let her down gently and told her he was not interested but the messages continued and became, in his words, “increasingly unnerving and unhinged.”
He said: “It was like a constant stream of consciousness.
“It was hard to follow what she was going on about.”
He contacted police and for about a year, the messages stopped but they started again after she had a chance encounter with one of his associates.
He said: “It felt threatening. I woke up at the end of my tether, not knowing how to make it stop.
“It was causing me a great deal of distress.”
He told the court he was worried she would show up on his doorstep.
“I was fearful of what she might be capable of.”
Some of the references in the messages made him feel like he was being “followed or tracked,” he said.
“I took precautions and spent several months paranoid that I was being followed by cars or whatever.”
The court heard Mr McGowan-Lowe broke down in tears and changed his routine, in case he bumped into Heneghan.
When she sent him a clip from Breaking Bad – involving a character in a hospital – he perceived that as a threat to harm him.
‘Black out drunk’
Heneghan, a mature STEM student, said she had a drinking problem she had battled to overcome.
She told police she was “black out drunk” when she sent the messages and alcohol had a “Jekyll and Hyde” effect on her.
Heneghan told the trial she never meant to cause harm but accepted the messages would have been “frightening”.
“This has been a tough lesson but I know how I can get fixated and focused on things.
“I’ve given up all my ‘investigations’ for want of a better word.
“I just go to church and keep my head down. My life is completely different now.
“My life is now of serenity.”
She added: “I am so sorry if I caused any fear, especially with the Breaking Bad video.”
Heneghan, who said she had sent the messages “as a form of therapy,” accepted she had interpreted things wrongly.
Her solicitor David Holmes said there was no issue with the court imposing a non-harassment order.
For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.
