Best-selling Fife author Val McDermid became the victim of a 28-year vendetta over a paragraph in one of her books.
The campaign came to a head when pensioner Sandra Botham threw ink into the Kirkcaldy-born crime writer’s face and called her “the female equivalent of Jimmy Savile”.
Ms McDermid, 58, told Sunderland Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday: “I was giving a public lecture at the university. After the lecture, I was giving a book signing and noticed she (Botham) was at the end of the queue.
“When she got to the front, she produced a dog-eared copy of A Suitable Job For a Woman, which was a non-fiction book I wrote dealing with private eyes.
“She then produced a book that looked like an old Top of the Pops annual and opened it at a page with Jimmy Savile on it.
“She asked me to sign that too. She was quite insistent. I wasn’t keen, but I get asked to sign all sorts of things so thought it would be easier just to do it.”
It was then Botham pulled a container of ink from her pocket, throwing it across the author, ruining her clothes.
Ms McDermid added: “She then said to me something like: ‘You are my female equivalent of Jimmy Savile’ before walking off, out the building.”
She added: “I have been told that she took offence to a chapter in the book she asked me to sign.”
The paragraph makes reference to a woman called Sandra who was shaped “like a Michelin Man”.
Cross-examining the author, Ms Botham stood up and said: “Hello Val, we meet again. The whole basis of this case depends on what this author has written about me and my family.”
When told to direct questions at Ms McDermid rather than just reading from her books, Botham told magistrates she was “closing the case” and instead would take it “to the highest court in the land”.
Botham then attempted to confront Ms McDermid, before shouting “I’ll see you in hell” and storming out.
Magistrates found her guilty of the common assault charge and adjourned the case for sentencing.