A convicted child sex offender ordered a pregnant woman to stop on a motorway using a flashing orange light on his dashboard and told her he was a military police officer, a court has heard.
Sinister Sidney McLagan pursued 29-year-old Sian Owen down the M90 and flashed his full beam headlights at her until she pulled over.
Ms Owen and partner Sam Taylor, 31, had been travelling from Liverpool to Shetland for a wedding when they were targeted by 73-year-old McLagan on the morning of May 20 last year.
“It was really bizarre,” Mr Taylor said. “But also pretty frightening.
“We doubted he was military police but we didn’t know whether or not he was someone in a position of authority.
“Sian was pregnant at the time and that day was her birthday, so you can imagine how shaken up she was.”
Mr Taylor, who had travelled with Ms Owen and their seven-month-old child to Perth Sheriff Court for trial on Monday, said: “We couldn’t believe it when we found out who he was and what he had done before.”
McLagan, from Bridge of Earn, pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner and causing Ms Owen to stop without lawful authority.
In 2003, the former bus driver was jailed for 15 months for historic charges involving sexually abusing two children, aged five and seven, during the 1970s.
Accused had ‘military style patch’
Fiscal depute Andrew Harding, prosecuting, said: “This happened at about 9.30am.
“Ms Owen was driving down the M90 when she observed the accused’s blue Toyota.
“She saw him flashing his headlights at her.
“Then he turned on an orange flashing light from the centre of his dash.”
Mr Taylor, asleep in the passenger seat, woke and told his partner not to pull over.
However, when McLagan continued to pursue their vehicle, Ms Owen drove off the motorway and onto Wicks O’ Baiglie Road at Bridge of Earn.
“The accused and Ms Owen exited their vehicles,” said Mr Harding.
“He approached the witness and told her his car was a registered military police vehicle and as such she would be reported for a driving offence.”
The fiscal depute said: “Mr Taylor began questioning the authenticity of the accused and asked to see some identification.”
The two men argued and McLagan handed over a “military-style patch”.
Mr Harding said: “The accused said he was MOD police, before driving away.”
McLagan was identified and traced by police that afternoon.
They seized items from his car, including the orange light, his patch and the SD card from his dashcam.
Compensation order
Solicitor Bethany Downham, defending, said: “He advises that he was driving on the motorway when he was cut up by the complainer.
“His intention was to confront the driver and explain that their driving was dangerous.
“He did not intend any harm.
“However, he accepts that he should have approached the matter entirely differently and should not have acted in the way that he did.
“He accepts responsibility for his actions.”
Sheriff Clair McLachlan told McLagan: “This was quite a bizarre offence and one that will have caused upset to the complainers.
“That’s not to mention their inconvenience of having to travel to court today.”
The sheriff ordered McLagan, of Muirmont Place, Bridge of Earn, to pay Ms Owen £600 compensation.
McLagan was placed on the sex offenders register in May 2003, after he admitted lewd, indecent and libidinous practices towards a seven-year-old girl on a patch of ground at Perth’s Firbank Road in 1971.
He further pled guilty to similar behaviour towards a five-year-old boy between December 1974 and December 1975.
The former Stagecoach driver’s recollection was hazy due to drink and drugs, the court was told.
McLagan was later hounded out of Perth by vigilante residents who posted news clippings of his offending through his letter box.
He found work in London, but retired some 14 years ago after an accident left him with five damaged discs.
The court previously heard had a low IQ of 71, placing him in the bottom 3% of the population.
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