Jail sentence for harassing ex-partner

A MAN from Bixter will spend Christmas behind bars after attempting to visit his former partner at her home while knowing he was breaching a court interdict.

Forty four year old Oliver Tait, of Lingaro, previously admitted turning up at the Lerwick home uninvited before loitering outside on 15 October.

The man has “considerable history” with his ex-partner and was serving an interdict at the time that prohibited him from approaching her.

At Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday, procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said the woman noticed Tait outside her home when she was putting rubbish out.

She went inside, locked her doors and called for her mother to collect her. By the time she arrived, Tait had left the premises.

Mackenzie says seeing Tait has a “profound effect” on the woman and that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their relationship.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client hadn’t been in contact with his ex-partner for two years prior to the incident and felt he needed to make “amends”.

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Sheriff Philip Mann said the time was nigh for the “message to get through” to Tait, who was previously given a custodial sentence regarding the same woman.

He jailed the man for 12 weeks and gave him a two-year non-harassment order that prohibits Tait from contacting the woman or visiting the street she lives on.