A grandfather who threatened to kill his son’s ex-partner and her parents, daubed a van and a car with insults and subjected them to a tirade of abuse, told police he thought he had “handled it well”.
Bruce Findlay said he would “put a hammer through” his son’s ex-partner’s head and left a handwritten note on her mother’s windscreen threatening to kill her husband, Dundee Sheriff Court heard.
The court heard Findlay is the grand-father of Natalie Greenwood’s three children.
Fiscal depute Laura Bruce said at 11.09pm on August 13, Findlay left a voicemail on Ms Greenwood’s phone calling her an unfit mother and saying he would get her children taken away.
Over the next few days, he subjected her to threatening voicemails, saying he would kill Ms Greenwood and that “this was a promise and not a threat”.
He also made threats to kill her sister, her mother and her step-father Robert Keith and said he wanted “all her family dead”.
On August 19, Mr Keith found graffiti scrawled on his van and his wife’s car, along with a handwritten note threatening to murder him.
The fiscal said: “Later that day, Ms Greenwood was in her home address with her young child when the accused drove into her street and started punching and kicking on her door and banging on the windows. He was shouting and swearing and threatening to murder her.”
Neighbours also heard him threatening to set the house on fire.
On August 22, Mr and Mrs Keith were woken at 5.30am by loud banging on their front door and windows and the accused shouting and swearing and threatening to kill them.
When police arrested him, Findlay said: “I thought I handled it very well.”
The 62-year-old, of Balerno Street, admitted behaving aggressively and threatening violence, causing fear and alarm by sending abusive voicemails, attending their homes, shouting and swearing, uttering threats of violence and damaging property.
Sheriff Linda Smith placed him on a non-harassment order for two years. He was also placed under supervision for two years and told to pay £400 in compensation to Mr and Mrs Keith.
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