An employee-from-hell who threatened his boss with a loaded shotgun and tortured him with a dog chain has been jailed for 40 months.
A court heard in July how Ronald McLennan spent two decades bullying Ian Robertson
The jury at the High Court in Dundee heard evidence about allegations of water-boarding, death threats, blackmail, deliberate car crashes and torture.
McLennan had faced a total of 19 charges relating to incidents between April 2000 and April 2019.
The 52-year-old, of Charleston, near Forfar, was found guilty of four of 19 charges he originally faced.
He was imprisoned when he appeared for sentencing at the High Court in Paisley last week.
Dog chain attack
The court was previously told first offender McLennan had worked for Mr Robertson in the construction industry for 20 years.
Mr Robertson told the trial he was regularly hit with weapons and was left terrified on a number of occasions when McLennan pulled a loaded shotgun on him.
He described how, on one occasion, McLennan angrily confronted him and placed a dog chain round his neck to torture him.
McLennan pulled the chain tight and Mr Robertson, from Forfar, said he was gasping for breath and fell over as he fought for his life.
The jury found McLennan guilty of breaching the peace by brandishing a loaded shotgun at Mr Robertson and threatening his family on various occasions between April 1 2000 and October 6 2010.
They found him guilty of injuring Mr Robertson by punching and kicking him on the head and body, and striking him with metal bars and pieces of wood, between April 2006 and April 19 2019.
Shotgun charges
McLennan was also found guilty of attacking Mr Robertson with a dog chain during a single incident in the Angus town between March 20 2008 and December 31 2014.
He was convicted of pulling the chain and compressing his victim’s neck to his severe injury and danger of life.
Finally, the jury found McLennan guilty of brandishing a loaded shotgun and threatening Mr Robertson with violence on an occasion between January 1 2006 and December 31 2008.
They removed a reference to him discharging the shotgun above his victim’s head.
After the trial judge Lord Hughes said: “Charge six [involving the dog chain] is an incident which would have caused particular distress to the complainer.
“The jury have found that what you did was to the danger of that person’s life.
“They are very serious matters and that will be reflected in the sentence in due course.”
Dropped charges
The jury returned not proven verdicts on charges of assault relating to incidents in March 2006 and in Montreathmont Forest in March 2008.
The charges which collapsed during the trial included McLennan extorting £38,200 from Mr Robertson by threatening to report him to the Health and Safety Executive and HMRC.
An allegation McLennan drove a truck towards a van driven by Mr Robertson was also removed before the jury retired to consider verdicts.
Claims of water-boarding by putting a rag in Mr Robertson’s mouth and pouring water on it and tying him to a chair, punching and slapping him and brandishing a drill, were also abandoned.
McLennan was further formally cleared of causing a van to roll down a hill and into a river and driving a car at his boss and trying to strike him.
He was also cleared of hitting his victim with a digger bucket, throwing him into a flooded trench and stamping on his head and body to severe injury and danger of life.
