For as long as Jimmy Holland was alive, Christine Robertson says she lived in constant fear.
Things got so bad for the former prison officer that she attempted suicide several times and has received extensive counselling following her spell in prison.
She said: “I was constantly looking over my shoulder — I could never relax. Only now am I beginning to get over the trauma and trying to move forward with my life.
“I am trying to begin a new chapter. I have lost the career I loved, a great standard of living and am having to start all over again.”
Holland was serving an eight-year term in prison for assault and robbery at the time. He was described as “one of the most feared and dangerous men in Scotland”.
He had spent most of his life inside, having previously taken his fellow prisoner Denis Carr hostage at knifepoint at Saughton jail in Edinburgh.
In 1997, Holland received a six-year sentence following a hostage-taking at Glenochil Prison, when he and murderer James O’Rourke held prison officer Willie Irvine and nurse Karen Kinnear for 18 hours.
He was then transferred to Perth Prison but the next day he took a trainee solicitor captive. During Christine’s trial in May 2012, the court heard how Holland had spent the last 20 years in jail for violence, disorder and hostage-taking.
The jury was told he was “capable of virtually anything”.
Members of the press were even told to move to a different part of the court room to avoid being targeted if he kicked off.
Holland detailed his life of crime in two books, which told how he had been placed in care at just two weeks old and later turned to offending.
Christine’s sheriff and jury trial lasted six days, but it took just 52 minutes to find her guilty.
She said that when she heard Holland had died, she began to feel that she might have a better future.
“I would never say that I was actually glad that someone had died but for the first time in a very long time I felt safe,” she said.
“He was an evil man and when I heard that he had been released from prison I was really scared.
“I asked the authorities for protection but it was only after several attempts that they began to understand my fear.”
She said things took a nasty turn in April this year after Holland was released. Christine said: “He went to the media and told them a load of lies. He said he and I had kissed and cuddled while at Castle Huntly and that I took full advantage of him because he was vulnerable.
“I was horrified as that was just rubbish, but even at that time I felt if I told my story that no-one would believe me. I began to wonder, when is this man going to leave me alone?”
As a prison officer she suffered badly while behind bars.
She said: “I was locked up for 23 hours a day, every day, for two months for my own protection.
“It was awful being locked up like that day after day. The only thing that kept me going was knowing I had the support of family and friends.”
What Christine still finds hard to accept is how, she says, Holland manipulated her.
She added: “I am aware that I made mistakes along the way but it is very easy afterwards to look back and realise that.
“It’s a different matter when you are actually living this life day to day.”
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