A 40-year-old pest who chased two 10-year-old schoolgirls after hiding at the bottom of steps in Dunfermline has finally been jailed for his persistent frightening behaviour.
Kenneth Grindlay also ran towards a mother and her 15-year-old daughter outside a Co-op in the city’s Linburn Road a few months earlier.
Grindlay appeared for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court by video link to prison after earlier pleading guilty to two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
It is the latest in a catalogue of such offending but the first time he has been jailed for it.
Scared children
Prosecutor Matthew Knapp told the court that on January 17 this year a man in a car saw Grindlay on Lauriston Drive “crouched down as if trying to sneak up on someone”.
The fiscal depute said: “(The man) then saw Mr Grindlay run towards two young girls in primary school uniform.”
The man then shouted out and Grindlay ran towards him.
He asked Grindlay to leave the girls alone but then saw him again “crouching at the bottom of the same set of stairs and then running towards another group of children” so contacted police.
Two of the children went to a friend’s house and an adult noted they seemed “panicked and scared” and she had to take them home in her car, the fiscal said.
Police traced Grindlay near his home address later that day and he was charged.
Court papers say Grindlay presented himself in an intimidating manner by repeatedly attempting to conceal himself before pursuing and running towards the unaccompanied ten-year-old girls and running towards a man in his car.
Shop terror
At around 9.15pm on October 2 last year, a mother and daughter were at a Co-op in Linburn Road.
They noticed Grindlay and the mother recognised him due to having “previous dealings” with him, the fiscal said.
“Mr Grindlay noticed both (mum and daughter) and he has made a few running steps towards them before stopping.
“In response, both the women have then run into the Co-op for safety and made a member of staff aware.
“They were worried Mr Grindlay was following them and saw he was outside at a wire fence.”
Police were contacted and arrived a short time later but Grindlay could not be traced until later that night at his home.
Past crimes
Grindlay, of Mackie Place, Dunfermline, has previous convictions for targeting female strangers in the street.
In January last year, he left a 45-year-old woman petrified when he approached her in an Asda car park and said “put your f***ing shopping in the car” and called her a “f***ing b**ch”. He was fined.
Previous offences have included following two women as they walked a dog near Woodmill Road in June 2023 and asking one of them to fight, before pulling out and swinging a wine bottle. He was told to be of good behaviour.
He exposed himself to two women and a 12-year-old child in November 2022, weeks after shouting and following the same two adults in a Dunfermline street. He was put on curfew.
Custody threshold crossed
Defence lawyer Aime Allan said there was “no good explanation” for her client’s offending but the explanation given is alcohol consumption.
She said Grindlay’s period in remand has been a “wake-up call”, adding: “He tells me he will work on remaining abstinent from alcohol when released and that should ensure he commits no further offences.
“All offences have happened while under the influence”.
Sheriff Clair McLachlan told Grindlay: “These were both extremely unpleasant offences involving children and causing them fear and distress.
“I am satisfied the custodial threshold is more than crossed in both and there is no alternative to custodial sentences”.
Grindlay was jailed for a total of ten months, backdated to January 21 this year.
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