An Angus man torched his ex-partner’s car after apparently trying to force his way into her Fife home.
Jordan Forster, who previously lived in Kirkcaldy, had made abusive and threatening phone calls to the woman throughout the evening.
The 36-year-old was caught on a Ring Doorbell camera shortly before her Volkswagen Golf was set alight at around midnight.
His victim told The Courier that after the blaze she was “scared for weeks” in her home.
Forster appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for sentencing this week after earlier pleading guilty to domestically-aggravated charges of wilfully setting fire to the car in Hill of Beath and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at a property in the street in July last year.
He tried to withdraw his guilty plea to the wilful fireraising charge at an earlier court hearing but was not allowed.
Sentencing, Sheriff Susan Duff gave him 270 hours of unpaid work, banned him from contacting the woman for five years and made a £4,000 compensation order in favour of his victim.
She said: “Your behaviour towards your ex-partner was very threatening and abusive and caused her significant distress and financial loss.”
The sheriff warned Forster, who now lives in Wellbank, near Dundee, and works as a steel fabricator in Aberdeen, that completing his unpaid work in the next nine months must take priority over his job as she can send him to jail for not doing it.
The sheriff added: “You are on the threshold of a jail sentence.”
Tried to get into house
Prosecutor Amy Robertson told the court the relationship between Forster and the woman had ended around the time of the incident.
She said that at about 8pm on July 26 the woman was travelling home and received a text from Forster asking to talk but she said she was going to block him from further contact.
Forster then phoned her and called her sexual slurs and made threats to go to her home address.
He made good on these an hour later when he appeared at her front door.
The fiscal depute said: “He immediately became aggressive, trying to get in, and began hitting the front door.”
A neighbour saw him kicking and hitting the door and thought he was trying to kick it in.
Forster grabbed a Ring Doorbell and ripped it from its mount and threw it to the ground.
Police attended but the woman stated she did not want to provide details and just wanted to forget what had happened.
Officers carried out a search but Forster could not be traced.
Car torched
At around 10.30pm that evening, the woman answered a call from Forster on a ‘no caller ID’ number, the court heard.
He said he was “waiting for a lift to come back to her home address” and sounded under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the fiscal said.
The prosecutor said at 11.53pm, another Ring Doorbell camera captured Forster walking back to the woman’s home.
She heard the sound of glass being broken and ran downstairs as a neighbour shouted “your car is on fire”.
She ran into the street to see her parked car engulfed in flames.
It was still alight when firefighters and police arrived at around 12.05am.
Forster was traced at home and arrested at about 1.30am.
Ms Robertson said the woman still has an outstanding finance balance of £11,000 on the car and she was not covered for fire damage.
Victim’s terror
Speaking to The Courier after the court hearing, the woman welcomed the sentence but said no amount of compensation would make up for what Forster had done.
She said: “Afterwards, I was scared for weeks in my home.
“I remember hearing thunder one night and jumped out of bed in a panic because it was similar sounds to the car bursting into flames, the tyres bursting, and windows popping.”
The woman said her car was just 10 yards from a fence and if that had caught fire, it could have put houses at risk.
She also had to alert neighbours to get them to move their cars.
When she saw the burned-out shell the next day she burst into tears.
She said one neighbour told her they were scared to go to bed at night in case Forster returned.
She said: “It just shows he can’t control his anger or actions”.
Maintains innocence
At a previous court hearing, Forster – who has one previous conviction for assault – sought to change his plea but Sheriff Duff refused on the basis he had legal advice when he entered it.
This week, defence lawyer Heather Morrison said her client maintains his innocence in relation to the fireraising and “much of” the other offence.
From the dock, Forster said he was given legal advice “to plead guilty or go to jail”.
Sheriff Duff reiterated a plea was tendered by a solicitor on his behalf, confirmed with him at the time, and this was an acceptance of guilt in court.
Ms Morrison went on to say Forster has indicated he had tried to end the relationship for about six months but “effectively she would not let the relationship come to an end”.
The sheriff asked why he would come to the woman’s house in the middle of the night if he did not want to see her.
Ms Morrison replied there were messages in the evening from the woman and her former partner which he thinks were “designed to get a reaction from him”.
The lawyer said Forster now works as a steel fabricator in Aberdeen and moved to Angus from Kirkcaldy to get away and start afresh.
Ms Morrison said her client is “not accepting the full extent of what he pled guilty to”.
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