A Tayside teacher brought a dead cat to his neighbour’s door and a dead rat was posted through the letterbox, it was claimed during a trial.
Science teacher Mark Dycher is on trial at Dundee Sheriff Court, accused of stalking his neighbour Natasha Brown, in Newport-on-Tay for more than a year.
It is alleged that on various occasions between January 1 2021 and February 6 2022 he engaged in a course of conduct which caused fear and alarm.
Dycher is alleged to have sent a threatening letter to Ms Brown, thrown dog faeces at her home, placed his head against her window and stared in.
Prosecutors say he repeatedly played loud music and struck the floor of his house – above Ms Brown’s – and struck her dog with a briefcase.
He is alleged to have acted aggressively, approached a child and recorded her on a mobile phone.
Dycher, 64, is facing two further charges of approaching Ms Brown when he was subject to bail and an undertaking to stay away from her.
Dog mess row
Ms Brown told the court she had made numerous calls to police about her upstairs neighbour and said: “There’s been a lot of stuff that’s went on.”
She said the origin of the dispute was Dycher making repeated complaints about her dogs’ mess being left on communal ground.
Ms Brown told the trial Dycher posted a flyer – featuring a picture of a child smeared in excrement – to her address after he called her “a f***ing mink.”
Handwritten on the flyer, it said: “Respect your neighbours, do the right thing, pick up your dog s***e. Be a respectful citizen.”
She said: “He put posters up as well about dog fouling.
“The handwriting all matched up.”
Dead rat and cat claim
Ms Brown went on: “There was an incident where he brought a dead cat to the door.
“We had a dead rat posted through the cat flap.
“There was a time he would stand on the floorboards in his hallway and bounce up and down and make them squeak, just to irritate us, get a reaction or whatever.
“He was staring at us through the window, videoing in through the window.
“That’s why my curtains and blinds are constantly closed.
“There was a time he was trying to steal our cat and encourage it to go into his house.
“He clipped one of our dogs with a briefcase.”
Trial continues
A 12-year-old girl told a court Dycher was found lying in his boxer shorts, clutching a tin of cat food.
The girl said he was found by a neighbour, nearly naked and in a drunken stupor on his kitchen floor.
The child told the trial before Sheriff Peter Anderson: “He drinks at night and he is a science teacher at a high school.”
She told the court he could be heard shouting the name of one of Ms Brown’s cats, which led to the pet owner going to check what was happening.
“He was lying on his kitchen floor, passed out, with his boxers on and a tin of cat food in his hand.
“She told me this. I was in the house.”
The girl said Dycher “played blasting music” and “would get drunk and talk to himself.”
The witness said Dycher had been caught peering in windows, making those inside “feel unsafe”.
Dycher denies the charges and the trial continues.
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