A WEE COUNTY stalker has been spared jail time after "terrorising" his partner's secret lover for months.

Stewart McWilliams appeared in the dock for sentencing at Alloa Sheriff Court on Thursday, January 23, having admitted one charge of threatening behaviour and another of stalking.

The Alva resident committed the first offence on December 27, 2018, after finding messages from another man on his partner's phone while at home.

Upon learning she had been seeing someone else, McWilliams flew into a rage and grabbed a knife from the kitchen.

He then asked his partner to use it on him, but she refused and managed to de-escalate the situation.

A few days after that incident, McWilliams, 37, started to terrorise the man who had been contacting her.

The court heard the man had believed McWilliams' partner was single at the time.

Prosecutor Susannah Hutchison told the court that in January alone, the man received 60 calls and texts along the lines of: "I want to know what's been going on between you and my partner."

Over time, the messages escalated into threats, such as: "I've given you a chance to explain, now I'm coming to your work."

Another said: "I'm going to carve you up."

McWilliams also sent the man a picture taken from outside his work, and was spotted walking and driving past the workplace multiple times.

Then, on August 15, as the man was walking home through Dunblane, he spotted McWilliams in the street.

After making his way home, he looked out the window and saw him again.

Ms Hutchison said: "He was staring at him, and he saw him a further four times, catching his eye and holding eye contact."

McWilliams then sent a message threatening to burn his house down, resulting in police being contacted.

In Court last week, solicitor James Savage said his client, who is currently studying IT at Forth Valley College, was suffering from anxiety and depression.

He then said: "He wasn't going to do anything beyond the bluster of the threats."

But Sheriff Craig Harris blasted McWilliams for the way he plagued the complainer's life for months on end.

He said: "The gravity of these offences cannot be underestimated.

"This was a course of conduct over a period of eight months, terrorising an individual, turning up at his place of work and his home address.

"The [background] reports suggest you are a selfish individual, you display no victim empathy and no remorse for what you did."

But the sheriff went on to say that a slight change had been detected in McWilliams' attitude, and it was that change that would spare him from going to prison.

He then gave McWilliams, of Dalmore Drive, a community payback order with the requirement he complete 240 hours of unpaid work.

He also required him to undergo supervision, and attend the Caledonian Programme, for two years.