Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Local stalker hid phone in woman’s car then texted her to say he knew where she was

Local stalker hid phone in woman’s car then texted her to say he knew where she was

A stalker who hid a mobile phone in a woman’s car so he could track her movements was today spared jail.

Mark Newsome subjected the woman – who cannot be named for legal reasons – to a chilling six-month campaign of harassment.

At one point he hid a phone in the woman’s car so he could track her movements via its GPS signal – then bombarded her with texts telling her he knew where she was.

Newsome also admitted a charge of voyeurism after he snapped pictures of the woman as she dried herself after a shower.

A sheriff today described his actions as “sustained, sophisticated and sinister” – but Newsome avoided a jail term.

Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard during his stalking campaign, between November 2017 and April this year, Newsome had gone through the woman’s phone, screenshotting private messages on it and sending them to his own device.

Newsome also bombarded the woman with text messages, phone calls and messages on social media.

He also threatened to disclose sensitive information to her employer and pretended to retain personal information about her.

The creep then went on to conceal a mobile phone in her car and used it to track her whereabouts.

Newsome then repeatedly sent her text messages telling her that he knew where she was.

He further admitted that at some point between February 2017 and April this year he took a picture of the woman drying herself after coming out of the shower “for his own personal use”.

Newsome, 46, of Milton Crescent, Anstruther, Fife, pleaded guilty on summary complaint to charges of stalking committed between November 2017 and April 2018 and of voyeurism committed between February 2017 and April 2018.

The offences took place at Upper Largo, Fife, at Asda in Kirkcaldy and elsewhere.

Defence solicitor Doug McConnell said: “This goes beyond the usual type of [stalking] case the court deals with.

”He apologises for that and he doesn’t understand why he did it.

“He’s been a man who has always been of good behaviour and this was an aberration.

”He is still in employment and has a good job.“

Sheriff James Williamson imposed a community payback order with 12 months supervision and 180 hours unpaid work.

He also placed Newsome on the sex offenders register for a year.

He said: ”This was a sophisticated effort and exercise on your part.

“These are serious matters.

”Often these offences are committed by people who stumble about into it.

“You on the other hand gave this some thought.

”It was sustained and quite sinister.“

This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.