A STALKER has been banned from contacting his former partner after admitting he struggled to get over the end of their relationship.

Scott Syme admitted stalking his former girlfriend between January 6 and 27 of this year before then breaching his bail conditions by contacting her again.

Susannah Hutchison, depute fiscal, told Alloa Sheriff Court last Thursday, that the pair were in a three-year relationship which ended, although they "attempted to be friends".

The complainer ended this friendship because Syme kept "trying to rekindle" the romance, but became angry when told no and subsequently sent abusive messages and voicemails to her.

On January 13, the pair ran into one another at Menstrie Bowling Club, resulting in an argument before Syme started phoning the complainer "repeatedly".

Police were then called and traced Syme who told officers he would desist from the contact.

However, at 7pm that evening Syme once again contacted the woman and threatened to "kill himself in the next half hour" because she had told everyone he was a "wife-beating a******e", before calling her a "stupid f****** c***".

The terrified woman then found a handwritten letter in her letter box from Syme which said she was going to "pay for getting the police involved" and accused her of being unfaithful.

As a result of the campaign of abuse, the woman began to phone in sick to work and was in fear of leaving her home.

Police then arrested Syme who replied: "I was hurt," adding that he was "treated like a beast, I wasn't even allowed to pet the dog".

On February 6, Syme broke his bail condition not to contact the complainer by asking a friend to phone her and tell her he "wanted to cuddle her", to which the complainer threatened to phone the police.

Syme was subsequently arrested and claimed he never asked anyone to phone her.

Kelly Howe, representing Syme, told the court that the relationship between the two was a "significant" one and following its demise there had been contact between the two which provided the 48-year-old with "mixed signals".

Ms Howe added that it was a somewhat two-way street in some regards, saying that if Syme turned up to events with a female, that woman would then be targeted with comments on Facebook.

It was also heard that further claims of breaching bail conditions by the complainer have been investigated and found to be untrue by police.

Sheriff David Mackie imposed a community payback order on Syme, of Broompark West, Menstrie, with a requirement to take part in the Caledonian Men's Programme.

He also granted a two-year non-harassment order, banning any contact between the pair.