Facebook troll who taunted missing man's family sent back to jail
STV 10 March 2015 11:51 GMT
Serial Facebook troll has been jailed for a second time for sending a barrage of abuse via the social networking site.
Stewart McInroy committed his latest offence just weeks after being released from jail for an identical crime.
The 24-year-old was first jailed in August after sending a series of cruel messages to friends and family of missing Glenrothes man Allan Bryant Jr.
Mr McInroy claimed he had taken Mr Bryant hostage and "brutally tortured and murdered him".
He was released in September last year having served half of a ten-month sentence.
But in November McInroy again took to Facebook while living in Dunfermline to launch a campaign of abuse against his ex-girlfriend, threatening to hurt a dog and a small child if she did not contact him before claiming he would burn her house down.
Commenting on his case at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Sheriff Grant McCulloch told McInroy: "There seems to be no reason for this other than badness."
McInroy first tried to add former partner Lisa Dryburgh as a friend on the site, but she blocked him.
He then tried to get another woman, Kimberley Walker, to do his bidding, sending her a series of text and voice messages to get her to contact Ms Dryburgh.
He told Ms Walker that "pain and misery" would be caused to a puppy if she did not contact Ms Dryburgh for him, before stating he had a child who would "suffer" if she did not do as he asked.
Fiscal depute Beverly Adam told the court: "Ms Walker thought he was joking but he then sent a voice recording in which he said, 'Just to make my point', followed by the sound of a dog whimpering.
"He then said 'get her to unblock me or the dog gets it'.
"By this time she felt compelled to contact Lisa Dryburgh and she sent screenshots of the conversation to her.
"The next day Ms Drybrugh was made aware of two posts on Facebook. One mentioned 'punishment has to start and you will suffer for your actions'.
"The second said 'I will burn your home no matter how long I wait or what but as long as you're dead. You had a choice my friend, you think I'm just saying it but we shall see'.
"Ms Dryburgh believed these related to her and contacted police and the accused was detained but he denied any involvement."
McInroy, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pleaded guilty to a charge of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner likely to cause fear and alarm on November 14 and 15 last year.
Defence solicitor Michelle Renton said: "The offence he pleads guilty to exactly mirrors the one he was sentenced for last year.
"He had been drinking at the time of this offence.
"He is in no doubt as to the position he finds himself in today and there's only one method of disposal and that is custody."
Sheriff McCulloch jailed McInroy for seven months and said: "You carry out these appalling Facebook attacks on people. This is the second time at least that it has happened.
"To me there seems to be no reason for it other than badness.
"You have quite happily engaged in causing grief and upset to Ms Walker and only a custodial sentence is appropriate until such time that you recognise that alcohol is not good for you."
Last year McInroy posted a series of messages to the father of Allan Bryant Jr, who started a Facebook campaign page in the hunt for his son.
Mr Bryant was last seen leaving Styx nightclub in Glenrothes on November 3, 2013. He has never been found.
McInroy wrote: "I am the killer of Allan Bryant. When he walked home I stopped my van, grabbed him, holded him hostage til I found out he was on the news so I brutally tortured him.
"Tied to a chair, stabbed nails in him, wrapped with 240,000 volt wire and fried him."
McInroy was jailed for ten months over the earlier abuse, a sentence slammed as too short by Mr Bryant Sr.
