Former police officer sentenced for stalking

Ashley Boyd, who had been employed as a police officer, admitted a charge of stalking, and admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice by using a friend to try and evade a police investigation into her actions.

Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that Ms Boyd targetted a former colleague, a man she had worked with prior to joining Police Scotland.

She hacked his email and social media accounts, including posting an offensive message from his Twitter account.

She accessed his Facebook account and, while imitating him, held conversations with his friends and pretended that he was unhappy in his marriage.

Ms Boyd also cancelled a hospital appointment for the man’s wife.

In order to try and evade the police investigation into her behaviour, she convinced a friend to confess to hacking the Twitter account and posting the offensive message.

Les Brown, head of the Criminal Allegations Against the Police Division, said: “Ashley Boyd placed an innocent couple in a state of fear and alarm through her criminal behaviour.

“There was no justification for the abusive messages and the invasion of their personal lives.

“Boyd’s decision to exploit a friend to evade investigation and prosecution exacerbated the tremendously difficult situation she had created.”