A STALKER who wrote love letters to his therapist in blood was yesterday sentenced to life behind bars.
Brian Johnstone, 33, harassed Dr Dawn Relton for more than two years.
He wrote messages saying "I love you" in his own blood and took more than 1,000 secret photos and videos of her.
Police found a crossbow, handgun, smoke grenades and pepper
spray at his Glasgow flat. Judge Lord Malcolm told the court Johnstone was too dangerous to be set free.
Dr Relton, a 30-year-old psychologist, worked at Maryhill Health Centre in Glasgow when Johnstone, an unemployed mental health outpatient, was referred to her for treatment in 2006. He quickly became obsessed , admitting to having been "infatuated" and having sexual thoughts about her.
She guessed he was infatuated and stopped seeing him. Johnstone saw this as a rejection and vandalised Dr Relton's car, stealing the wing mirrors and wiper blades and slashing the tyres.
He was caught when mental health nurses visiting his Arthur Street flat last July saw a photo of the therapist on his computer screen.
Police searched his home, finding the stolen wing mirrors and an array of weaponry, blood-stained handcuffs and a balaclava.
The stalker had painted his victim's name in either red paint or blood on his living room door and there were 1,100 photographs on his computer, of Dr Relton and Shona Crawford, a former colleague Johnstone stalked without her knowledge.
He pleaded guilty last November at Glasgow Sheriff Court to causing a breach of the peace by harassing Dr Relton between January 2006 and July 2008.
His crime was so severe, the case was transferred to the High Court for sentence.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Rajan Darjee said the stalker had a serious personality disorder.
He warned "intimacy-seeking" stalkers like Johnstone, who target healthcare workers, are very likely to strike again – and to turn violent.
The psychiatrist said Dr Relton's life and career could be ruined if her stalker was let back into the community. He said: "The effects can be more serious than victims of rape or violent offences experience."
Johnstone took to the stand to give evidence at Aberdeen High Court.
He insisted: "I have no interest whatsoever in Dr Relton's life. Now I realise what distress I caused her and I'm sorry for that – my intention was never to cause fear. I don't understand why I should get a life sentence when people who rape and hurt people don't get a life sentence.
"I don't get it – I'm not a danger at all to society."
