A high-flying lawyer who had an affair with a married man was stalked for almost two years by her lover’s scorned wife.
Jilted Pamela Wheeler, 48, made up a fake identity to abuse her victim online and stormed into her home to dump an unwanted cat.
She persistently phoned her former family friend Jennifer Douglas at work and posted vile abuse about her on Facebook after her husband left the family home.
Yesterday at Perth Sheriff Court, Wheeler was made the subject of a non-harassment order for five years and ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work.
She has been banned from approaching or contacting her love rival, prohibited from going to her home or the gym she uses, and banned from posting anything about her on any social media site.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: “The fact of the matter is you have accepted that for a period approaching two years you behaved in a manner which was intended to upset, alarm or intimidate the complainer and it is clear it did that.
“The truth is her husband left her and set up a relationship with another person. It’s accepted that anyone who finds themselves in that situation can feel upset.
“Her husband has been deceitful. She has been lied to and it may have been going on longer than she was told. There may be an initial emotional reaction which exceeds what you might expect, but she accepts that she goes overboard.”
He told Wheeler that if she failed to abide by the strict non-harassment order she could be jailed as he was imposing the sentence as a direct alternative to custody.
The court was told that Wheeler discovered her husband was seeing Ms Gordon in 2013 and started posting a series of abusive messages to her former friend on Facebook.
She wrote: “He is married and was when you started your fling. You have been cheating with my husband. You did study law so you must know the facts about adultery.”
Ms Douglas blocked her account, but Wheeler then created a fake persona for a Rita Doig and started posting more abusive messages from April 7 2014.
Depute fiscal Stuart Duncan said matters came to a head when Ms Douglas was in her Perth home and Wheeler stormed in uninvited and dumped the family pet.
Wheeler, Vasart Court, Perth, admitted a lengthy charge detailing a course of stalking which began on April 16 2013 and continued until January 31 last year.
She admitted engaging in a course of conduct which caused Jennifer Douglas fear or alarm and to be afraid for her safety and intimidated and distressed.
While Ms Douglas was working for legal firm Miller Hendry, Wheeler contacted her office and demanded to speak to her.
On January 31 last year, Wheeler entered an address at Rosslyn House and walked through the property uninvited.
Solicitor Jamie Baxter, defending, said: “She was about to go to Egypt for two weeks and she needed somebody to look after the cat.
“She got a message from her husband in not polite terms that she had to make arrangements to look after the cat herself and not to involve him in it.”
Wheeler explained the incident to social workers by telling them her love rival had taken everything else she had, so she may as well take the cat too.
Mr Baxter said the incidents happened while his client was under the influence of alcohol and she had failed to cope with the breakdown of her marriage.