A FORMER Dunoon man had his sentence deferred in Greenock Sheriff Court earlier this week after he admitted sending offensive and threatening messages to two female classmates, after being removed from his college course.
Seamus Cartwright, 35, who currently lives in Gourock, was accused of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner towards the two women over a nine- month period and on the day his trial was due to begin he pleaded guilty to both charges.
But sentencing was deferred as Cartwright had already been sentenced at Dunoon Sheriff Court for similar charges and an assessment of his progress was requested.
During the hearing at Greenock the court heard that Cartwright had formed a friendship with one of the women while studying at West College Scotland. Tensions arose when she became friends with another female student Cartwright already knew. His behaviour then grew increasingly hostile, leading to his removal from the Greenock campus and transfer to the Paisley campus.
In April 2024, the first woman received a series of messages from Cartwright via Instagram although friendly at first, they eventually became offensive, referencing her friendship with the second woman. Although he apologised, his conduct escalated again in September that year when he sent a barrage of abusive messages, including threats against her boyfriend and a vow to turn up at the college to damage her reputation. Distressed, the woman reported the incidents to Greenock police, who captured the messages as evidence.
The second victim described similar harassment between January and October last year. During one incident, Cartwright reacted aggressively when she brought a colleague to college for a hairdressing assessment, claiming he had ‘problems’ with the model. His behaviour resulted in him being removed from the Greenock campus. He later sent her a stream of abusive messages via Microsoft Teams, including threats of violence.
Cartwright has been diagnosed with emotionally unstable personality disorder.
Earlier this month at Dunoon Sheriff Court he was placed on house arrest for 21 weeks, from 7pm to 7am, and given a non harassment order for five years after the court had heard that between November 4, 2022 and December 16, 2023 at an address within Dunoon he had behaved in a threatening and abusive manner by repeatedly sending a local woman offensive messages through social media. Then between November 2, 2022 and December 31, 2023 he sent similar messages to a different woman while he also created multiple social media accounts that were designed to be offensive and abusive towards her as he repeatedly posted comments on social media about her.
The court also heard that between May 1, 2022 and April 28, 2023 Cartwright repeatedly posted comments on social media about the Selborne Hotel in Dunoon, which were offensive and abusive and between March 29, 2023 and July 15, 2023 he repeatedly sent a woman offensive messages and posted comments on her social media account that were abusive and homophobic.
In a further separate case at Dunoon Sheriff Court Cartwright also received a 12 month community payback order, 210 hours of community service and given another non harassment order for 5 years after he engaged in a course of conduct, between January 26, 2023 and May 16, 2023, which caused a woman fear and alarm after he created a number of social media profiles with offensive usernames and biographies where he posted images of the woman without her consent.
Cartwright also used these profiles to repeatedly contact her mother with abusive and sexual remarks where he also uttered threats of violence and threats to damage her property.
Sentencing in Cartwright’s Greenock case was deferred until June 12, to assess his progress under his current Dunoon Sheriff Court order.
