An author has been accused of waging a hate campaign that could have come from his own book.
David Aston is alleged to have terrorised his neighbours with actions including spreading rumours they were drug dealers and abusing children.
A court heard that Aston, 55, and his wife Jacqueline, 57, reported neighbours Stuart McMorris and Catriona Henderson to the police and the NSPCC, claiming the couple were guilty of child neglect.
They also allegedly reported teacher Ms Henderson to the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) and made allegations to East Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill.
The Astons are standing trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court accused of a series of charges relating to stalking and causing fear and alarm to neighbours in North Berwick, East Lothian, over three years.
David Aston is alleged to have terrorised his neighbours Stuart McMorris and Catriona Henderson (pictured left)
The trial was told how David Aston wrote a novel featuring a character who develops superpowers following a stroke and then sets out ‘dealing with the local neighbourhood’ after residents ‘decided that he was not welcome any more’.
The former chartered accountant penned A Stroke of Fortune after he suffered serious injuries, including brain trauma and a stroke, following a motorway car crash ten years ago.
Mr McMorris, 46, told the court he was left ‘astonished’ when he looked at the author’s online profile and read the description of the novel in April 2020.
He said: ‘I’m shaking at the moment just thinking about this. We were almost living what we were reading here.’
The online designer spent four days giving evidence detailing the catalogue of abuse he claims he and his family have suffered.
The father of two said the Astons’ conduct started soon after they moved into their £500,000 four-bedroom home at Blackadder Crescent in October 2018.
Initial problems included children being ‘deliberately’ sprayed with water as they played in their garden and arguments over bins.
He told the court things escalated when he witnessed the neighbours filming and taking photographs of his family.
He told the trial he and Ms Henderson received visits from the police and local authority after claims against them.
Ms Henderson and Mr McMorris told of incidents in their street (pictured)
Complaints were made to the NSPCC in 2020 by ‘an anonymous neighbour’ who claimed they were neglecting and abusing children.
Mr McMorris said: ‘We were already stressed out but this was utterly appalling. I couldn’t believe someone would stoop to this kind of behaviour towards us.’
He said an anonymous report claiming he was dealing drugs and abusing children ‘seemed like another tactic to damage our lives and our reputations’.
The court heard two complaints were made to the GTCS alleging Ms Henderson, 45, was dealing drugs from her home and was ‘an unfit mother’.
Prosecutor Clare Green said: ‘It is a matter of agreement that in April 2020 the GTCS received two referrals from an individual who identified themselves as Jacqueline Aston from Blackadder Crescent, North Berwick.’
On Monday Ms Henderson told the court Jacqueline Aston had ‘a strange obsession’ about the positioning of her bins at the front of her house. She also claimed children were intentionally soaked by the sprinkler system.
The teacher said on one occasion before the sprinkler was switched on she heard Jacqueline Aston say: ‘Let the games begin.’
The Astons deny all the allegations and the trial in front of Sheriff John Cook is due to continue in December.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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