A married police officer wove an elaborate fantasy world to dupe his secret lover into thinking their lives were both in danger.
Scott Gorrie, 43, was behind bars last night and his career lay in ruins as full details of his bizarre fictional life with the unsuspecting paramedic were revealed at Perth Sheriff Court.
Gorrie targeted the woman after being called to attend a domestic incident at her home, lured her into a relationship by friending her on Facebook, and bombarded her with 6,000 phone messages.
Shortly after forming the relationship behind his wife’s back, the father of two started creating a fantasy world to con her into thinking she was being stalked.
As the lies became more and more elaborate, Gorrie turned to two associates for help in creating a plausible back story to ward off an internal police investigation into his behaviour.
He tried to persuade them to tamper with evidence for him.
Sheriff William Wood remanded Gorrie in custody for pre-sentence reports and warned him he could expect to be sent to prison.
Gorrie, from Birkhill, Angus, admitted four charges on indictment including stalking his victim in Perthshire between June 13 and 26 last year.
He admitted causing her to believe she and her family were being monitored and were at risk of harm from others.
He also admitted trying to pervert the course of justice by persuading Scott Glover, of Kirriemuir, to pretend he had found Gorrie’s mobile phone to help him cover up the stalking.
Gorrie also admitted trying to pervert the course of justice by attempting to persuade John Leech to tell Michelle Murdoch to provide false information to police on December 5.
He admitted breaking a bail condition not to approach Michelle Murdoch at her home in Alyth, Perthshire, by doing so on November 12.
Fiscal Fiona Karnan told the court Gorrie had been a constable with Police Scotland since 2015 and had been based in Blairgowrie when he was called to a routine incident at his victim’s home.
Knowing she was in the middle of a divorce, he tracked her down on Facebook and within weeks had become involved in a relationship with her.
“The content and volume of messages showed that over a few weeks quite an intense relationship developed,” she said.
The woman had expressed to him a fear her estranged husband was monitoring her and Gorrie played on that fear to hatch an elaborate stream of lies. This was the start of an elaborate fiction created by the accused based on the fear she held.”
Gorrie claimed he had information several people were involved in following her.
He lied he had been a dog handler, and a traffic officer, and told her that they were both being followed and that he feared that their lives were in danger.
He told another party his wife had died in a car crash.
At one stage, he told his lover he was detailing a criminal informant to watch her home for her to check if others were spying on her.
Mrs Karnan said: “This is not the usual stalking charge. He caused the complainer real fear and alarm.”
Gorrie added credence to the threat by telling the woman a message had been received from her imaginary “stalker” in which he was able to describe a specific meal she had eaten.
Mrs Karnan said: “The relationship began to falter when she discovered he had fed her a pack of lies.”
The woman called Gorrie’s sergeant and after an investigation began Gorrie set off to cover his tracks by roping in friends and ex-colleagues to spin more lies for him. However, the investigation quickly brought the whole thing to a conclusion and Gorrie was arrested.
