A father-and-son have been ordered to stay away from their neighbours after a long-standing land dispute led to a five-month campaign of stalking and harassment.
Peter Roy Snr, 85, and his 56-year-old son, also Peter, engaged in a course of conduct against James and Sylvia Sutherland at their home in Madderty, near Crieff.
Perth Sheriff Court heard how Roy Snr set up a camera on a tree pointed at his neighbour’s ground, entered their land and stared at Mrs Sutherland as she hung out her washing.
He also drove a tractor over the disputed area of woodland between their homes and dumped a trailer at his neighbour’s gate for several days.
Roy Jnr pled guilty to his involvement in the course of conduct between April 1 and September 27, 2021, including shouting, swearing and kicking the Sutherlands’ door.
The campaign caused Mrs Sutherland fear and alarm, the court heard.
Now the pair, both of Craigmuir Farm, have been told to stay away from the couple for one year or face arrest.
10-metre ban
Sheriff Gillian Wade told them: “I am imposing a non-harassment order.
“You cannot go near your neighbours or their property. If you do, you could be uplifted by police.
“I think this is the best way of stopping this sort of thing happening again.”
Roy Jnr asked: “Does this mean I can’t walk round the village?”
Sheriff Wade replied: “Of course you can walk round the village but you must not go near them.
“We saw on the video (played during the trial) you going up their driveway. You can’t do anything like that.
“Also, you should not go within 10 metres of the radius of their house.”
Roy Jnr said: “He can’t stop me walking through the (disputed) wood with my dog, because he doesn’t own that wood. Nobody does.”
Neighbourly dispute
The court heard of “bad blood” between the two families over a patch of woodland near their farms.
Representing himself during the trial, Roy Snr said: “If they would leave folk alone, that would be better.”
Asked by Sheriff Wade if the Sutherlands might say that about him, he replied: “I’ve been on that ground before he had nappies on his backside.
“I’ve been there since the 1970s. I used to run pigs through it.”
Jail time
Earlier this year, Roy Snr was sentenced to two months in jail over an aging and ongoing feud with Perth and Kinross Council.
He left oil drums filled with pig waste at the roadside as part of a dirty protest against the local authority, who he claimed should have helped him repair his “uninhabitable” home which he was eventually forced to surrender to his pigs.
The farmer was served an abatement notice, banning him from depositing the barrels in public.
Originally sentenced to 300 hours unpaid work in 2019, Roy Snr returned to the dock in June and admitted he had not completed his workload.
For the latest court cases across Tayside and Fife, join our Courts Facebook page.
