A Stirlingshire pensioner who filmed a mother and daughter as they relaxed in a hot tub told police: “I’m a pain in the ass.”
Fraser White lurked behind his bedroom window in Bannockburn to capture the footage on two occasions.
The 73-year-old had previously reported the homeowners to the police for “rowdy” behaviour.
Fiscal depute Lindsay brooks told Stirling Sheriff Court there were ongoing issues between the neighbours.
She said: “The witnesses have a hot tub in their garden.
“At 7.15pm on October 1 they were using it and became aware of the accused at his bedroom window.
“The blinds were open and it looked like he was filming them.
“One of the witnesses felt intimidated by this and went into her property with her phone with the intent of filming the accused.
“There was a similar incident on October 5 at around 8pm when witnesses in the hot tub became aware of the accused at his bedroom window, appearing to film them.”
Police interview
The fiscal continued: “The accused was interviewed by the police about the incident.
“One of the comments he made was ‘they have a hot tub in their garden and it’s caused a lot of carry on’.
“He indicated he had reported them to the police for noise and drinking.
“When it was put to him that the neighbours were uncomfortable with him filming, he replied, ‘I’m a pain in the ass’.
Solicitor Ken Dalling, defending, said his client was “profoundly deaf” but had been bothered by noise coming from users of the hot tub.
He said: “He’s been resident there for 55 years.
“He has reported the neighbours to the police on a number of occasions.
“He told police that on 28 occasions he had recorded rowdy behaviour in this hot tub.
“Due to Mr White’s deafness it must have been at quite a threshold for it to come to his notice at all.
“The context here is he wanted to ‘give them back what he received’.”
He added he had told White that in order to remain on the right side of the law he should only report incidents to the police.
“He just wants to see out the rest of his years in the house he’s lived in quietly for years.”
Good behaviour order
White admitted engaging in a course of conduct that caused the women fear and alarm at another address in the street between October 1 and 5 last year.
Sheriff Elizabeth Macfarlane told White: “I’m sure Mr Dalling has given you good advice and I would urge you to follow that advice.”
Sentence was deferred until September for White to be of good behaviour.
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