David Aston and his wife were found guilty of causing three sets of neighbours fear and alarm.
David Aston and his wife were found guilty of causing three sets of neighbours fear and alarm.
The author of a self-published book about a disabled supervillain who terrorised people living in his street has been convicted of stalking his neighbours.
David Aston, 55, and his wife, Jacqueline, were found guilty of causing “fear and alarm” by constantly recording neighbours’ movements and making false reports about them to the police and local council.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard Jacqueline Aston, 58, also tried to wreck the career of one neighbour by making a malicious complaint to the General Teaching Council for Scotland, claiming the woman was neglecting her children and using drugs.
One neighbour on their middle-class estate in the seaside town of North Berwick told how he was “astonished” to discover a novel Aston had written, called A Stroke of Fortune.
It featured a character called Dave who develops magical powers following a stroke and uses them to wreak revenge on the local community by making “bad things happen to people who were behaving badly”.
Aston, a former chartered accountant, penned the novel after suffering serious injuries including brain trauma and a stroke following a motorway crash 10 years ago.
Stuart McMorris, 46, told the court he was left “shaking” just thinking about the book. He added: “We were almost living what we were reading here”.
In a scathing speech lasting about 60 minutes, Sheriff John Cook described the couple’s behaviour towards their neighbours over three years as “intimidating” and “utterly appalling”.
Catriona Henderson, the high school teacher and partner of McMorris, told how Jacqueline Aston had contacted Scotland’s teaching regulator to falsely accuse her of neglecting her children and claim she was using drugs including laughing gas and crystal meth.
The couple had first fallen out with the Astons over the positioning of bins.
David Aston’s book tells of a vengeful supervillain out to ‘do in’ his neighbours
The teacher said the Astons had repeatedly made “malicious” complaints about her family and the local authority alone had received 140 complaints in just five months during 2019.
The Astons denied wrongdoing but Sheriff Cook said the evidence against the couple was “both extraordinary and overwhelming”.
He warned the couple that he could impose an order banning any contact with their victims or to enter their street as part of their sentence, which would effectively force them to sell their £500,000 ($1 million) property.
“You have both been convicted of very serious offences and I require to decide whether custodial sentences are appropriate in the circumstances,” he told the couple.
“Mrs Aston, the number of complaints against you mean that there is a potential for five years’ imprisonment but that may not be proportionate.
“But you require to really understand I have convicted you of serious offences and I have to seriously consider whether you will be sentenced to a period of imprisonment.
“Mr Aston, your participation was less but I also have to consider whether any sentence other than a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
Sheriff Cook also said he would be considering imposing financial orders to compensate the neighbours who had paid for legal representation in “vexatious” court cases brought by the Astons.
The 21-day trial heard from several neighbours who said their lives had been turned into “a living hell” by the stalking campaign.
Robert Bain, 64, told the court the “constant monitoring” of him and his wife Marie, 67, by his neighbours had affected their health and the move to his dream retirement home had “turned to a nightmare”.
The Astons were found guilty of causing three sets of neighbours fear and alarm between October 2018 and October 2021.
Aston was also found guilty of assaulting Marie Bain by striking her with a bin and breaching bail conditions on three occasions.
Sentence was deferred for social work reports to next month.
