An obsessed stalker who placed a tracking device on his ex-partner’s car has been jailed for a year.
Former special constable Abdul Salam posed as a woman called “Samantha” and told his former partner’s husband she was having an affair, which she denies.
However, he was stung after the woman and her husband trapped him near police headquarters in Dundee.
Dundee Sheriff Court was told how the woman feels like a “prisoner” because of 37-year-old Salam’s conduct and has had her confidence “destroyed”.
Salam was jailed on Wednesday after he admitted stalking the woman between April and June 2019.
He was also banned from contacting the woman for the rest of his life.
Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC said: “You show no insight to the distress, fear and alarm that you have caused to the complainer.
“This is a course of conduct and your behaviour is not impulsive, it’s planned. Placing a tracking device on a car requires preparation and planning.
“It’s very clear to me from the comments made by the complainer that your behaviour has had a profound impact on her.
“She feels you are someone who will stop at nothing.”
The stalking begins
Dundee Sheriff Court had heard how Salam and the woman were in a two-year relationship, which ended in 2008.
In 2019, the woman noticed Salam would turn up to locations where she also was, over a three-month period.
On May 19 2019, the woman was in Pure Gym, West Marketgait, when she was approached by Salam who asked if they could get back together.
“The accused was aggressive and shouting,” fiscal depute Stewart Duncan said.
“A member of staff escorted him out but he came back over and tried to engage in conversation before being removed from the building.
“The witness noticed the accused outside the gym on other occasions which was always when the woman was using the gym.”
‘Cheating’ calls
During this time, the woman’s husband received a call from a number that was not in his contacts, who only identified themselves as “Samantha”, a parent from his children’s school.
A female voice stated his wife was cheating on him.
The man discussed the issue with his wife and they concluded Salam, of Hill Street, must have been behind the call.
In June 2019, the woman dropped her children off at school and Salam pulled up in front of her. He told her her husband knew she was cheating on him.
Mr Duncan added: “The complainer drove off and parked near Pure Gym. The accused then arrived and parked next to her.
“She walked towards the entrance of the gym and the accused approached her and there was a confrontation.
“At 10.40am, she left the gym and drove home.”
Entrapment plan
Mr Duncan said: “Her husband sent a text to ‘Samantha’ to try and entrap the accused into meeting in a public place.”
The woman’s husband asked “Samantha” to take a photograph of the woman.
She and her husband drove to Brown Street, where her husband hid in the back of the vehicle.
A short time later, Salam arrived in his car and approached the woman.
The man then got out of the car and began pushing Salam, witnessed by an officer from the nearby police headquarters.
Solicitor Larry Flynn told the court Salam committed the offences as “revenge for rejection” and suffered a dislocated shoulder after being attacked by the woman and her husband.
Salam’s victim maintains there was no affair.
Salam, a first offender, pleaded guilty to stalking the woman between April 1 to June 7 2019 by following her, placing a tracking device on her vehicle, verbally harassing her, pretending to her husband that she was having an affair and taking a photo of her car and sending it to her husband.
