An online troll who was jailed for abusing the family of missing Glenrothes man Allan Bryant called the police when he himself became a target.
Stewart McInroy was happy to dish out online abuse and threats but became upset over Facebook comments made to him by Fife youth Graham Maddock.
Maddock contacted McInroy after he had sent a message to the father of the missing man saying he had tortured and murdered him.
McInroy was jailed for ten months for that offence and later received another seven-month sentence for posting more vile online abuse to a former girlfriend threatening to burn her house down and harm her dog.
But McInroy then became the target of abuse from 18-year-old Maddock, of Ford Crescent, Thornton, who threatened to “cut” him and told him people in the Glenrothes area wanted him dead.
That resulted in an appearance in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for Maddock, who was just 17 at the time of the offence.
He admitted that on August 9 last year at Macbeth Road, Dunfermline, he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner by uttering threats of violence, made menacing and homophobic remarks in messages sent to Stewart McInroy.
Depute fiscal Fiona Nairn told the court that McInroy had accepted a friend request on Facebook from Maddock, even though he did not know him.
McInroy was then sent abusive messages from midnight until 5pm when he called the police.
Maddock posted a series of expletive-filled messages, adding: “I’ll cut you … You shouldn’t have done what you done. You’ll get done mate.”
Defence solicitor Roshni Joshi said her client was a first offender and the incident had taken place after there was “unsettling news in the community” relating to the missing person case.
She said her client had expressed remorse and added: “He says he accepts responsibility 110 per cent. He made full admissions and doesn’t put forward any excuses for his behaviour.”
Sheriff Craig McSherry fined Maddock £350.
Allan Bryant junior was last seen leaving a Glenrothes nightclub on November 3 2013. Family and friends have used social media to appeal for information on his disappearance.
