A man is to stand trial over allegations that he destroyed his ex-partner’s phone and took control of her social media accounts.
Craig Berturelli is accused of engaging in an abusive course of conduct towards the woman over a five-month period.
He is also charged with taking the woman’s bank cards and making violent threats towards three other women.
Appearing from custody at Dundee Sheriff Court, the 32-year-old pleaded not guilty to two charges on summary complaint and is due to stand trial in October.
Prosecutors allege that the offences were committed between October 1 last year and March 15 this year at an address on West High Street, Forfar.
Berturelli is firstly charged with taking the woman’s phone and smashing it with a hammer, destroying the phone in the process.
Thereafter, Berturelli allegedly replaced the device with another phone, setting the pass code which allowed him access to the contents of the phone.
He denies repeatedly accessing the woman’s social media accounts and sending abusive messages and making calls to her friends and members of her family.
Between March 10-11, Berturelli allegedly made threats towards the woman and threatened to hurt her family. This was before he allegedly took her phone and bank cards without permission.
It is alleged that he confronted three women who had attended the property concerned for the woman’s welfare on March 12.
Berturelli is accused of shouting, swearing, making violent threats and placing the women in a state of fear and alarm.
He is additionally accused of breaching the conditions of an investigative liberation condition on March 15. It is alleged that Berturelli tried to contact the woman by posting a letter and a ring through her letterbox upon his release from custody.
After pleading not guilty, Berturelli, of Forfar’s Glenogil Terrace, had a trial fixed for October by Sheriff Graeme Napier.
He was released on bail with special conditions not to contact the women mentioned in the charges and not to enter West High Street.
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