A former businessman left “intimate” pictures of a local woman lying around a picturesque Perthshire village, a court heard.
Residents in Abernethy who picked up the prints, one thinking they were discarded postcards, were shocked to find they were of the woman, topless.
Prints ended up in other areas, including under the wipers of cars at a steelworks in Perth.
Allister Linton, 65, admitted taking “various” consensual topless photos of her, using his mobile and a camera.
Photos left in scenic village
Around the beginning of September, the woman was in her Perthshire garden when she was approached by another woman, the court heard.
Prosecutor Robbie McDougall said: “The witness told her she had found various topless photographs of her scattered around Main Street in Abernethy.”
She handed the victim the photos she had picked up and the woman realised they were similar to pictures she knew Linton had taken of her.
The same day, another woman found three photos of the victim lying on the ground in the village’s School Wynd.
A few days later, another woman was out for a walk in Glenfoot Road, Abernethy, when she noticed a photograph lying on the ground.
Mr McDougall said: “Initially thinking it was a postcard, she picked it up before realising it was a topless image of the woman.
“The witness is a friend of the woman’s family and as such, returned the photograph.”
Pictures found in Newburgh and Perth
Similar photographs were found in nearby Newburgh around September 22.
This time they had the woman’s home address stamped on the back, along with her name and an obscenity.
The same evening the woman was at work when she received a Facebook message from a member of staff at McGarrie’s Metal and Fabrication Works in Shore Road, Perth.
It stated various different photographs of her had been found sticking to the windscreens of employees’ vehicles there.
Mr McDougall said the woman “had no known association or connections with McGarrie’s Metal and Fabrication Works and had no idea why the photographs had been distributed there, so she contacted police”.
Further photos were found under the lid of a bin, and on October 13 Linton was arrested at an address in Main Street, Abernethy.
Police also received a complaint from another former partner of Linton, who, also in October 2020, returned from work to her home in Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire, to find 25 photographs “lying on the threshold of her hallway”.
Mr McDougall said they showed her “in a state of undress, in lingerie”.
She identified them as having been taken by the accused while they were in a relationship together but was taken aback as she had had no contact with Linton for several years.
The court heard she cut them up and contacted police.
‘A somewhat eccentric character’
Linton, now of Carrick Place, Camelon, Falkirk, a former joinery businessman and first offender, pled guilty to two charges of statutory breach of the peace.
Solicitor Gordon Addison, defending, said Linton had been “attacked at his place of work by one of these women, and stripped of his top.
“Despite the fact that there were a number of witnesses, it wasn’t followed up by the authorities at all.
“He is a somewhat eccentric character with an unusual background and lifestyle who has had number of partners.
“He and these people had had what could be described as a very liberal lifestyle during the time that they were together, a very adult view, which involved taking photographs.”
Now spends much of his time alone
He said Linton was “ashamed” and now “spends much of his time alone, kayacking and climbing hills”.
Sheriff Christopher Shead sentenced Linton to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and placed him under social work supervision for 12 months.
He also imposed a non harassment order, forbidding him from contacting his victims for two years.
He said: “Your conduct can reasonably be characterised as deplorable.”
