MATEUSZ PLUSA

A man whose stalking behaviour left two teenage girls “petrified” has been ordered to stay away from them for three years.

Mateusz Plusa followed his victims in the dark and ran after them when they tried to get away from him.

He was also ordered to complete unpaid work in the community, after which, the court heard, he intends to return to his native Poland.

Plusa, 38, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing having previously been found guilty of engaging in a course of conduct causing fear and alarm following a trial.

During the trial the court heard from Plusa’s teenage victims, who broke down in tears as they recalled their ordeal during the trial of 38-year-old local hotel worker Mateusz Plusa of Newtonmore Road, Kingussie.

The youngest victim said that she and her friends were out walking dogs on the night of November 24 when they saw Plusa, whom they did not know but had seen around.

One of the girls was wearing a dressing gown and Plusa made a barely audible comment about her clothing and laughed.

But when they saw him again behind them as they continued through Kingussie, they “got a fright” and “ran off,” with one of the girls losing a “Croc” shoe in the process.

Plusa was running behind the group, which “shouted at him to stop” with one of the group then phoning her father to come and get them.

“We were terrified,” the witness said.

The father told the court that when he arrived Plusa spoke to him in Polish, and also repeated the word “Croc” at him.

The man asked Plusa to explain in English “but he didn’t”.

“The girls and the dogs had got in the car.

They were petrified.” The teenager said she and her friend saw Plusa again in January in a local park and the dogs ran over barking at him.

He shooed them away and left the park, only for Plusa to appear behind them again in the High Street and “speedwalk” towards them.

“When we turned round, he hid in shop entrances, we were scared again,” the witness said.

The other teenager told fiscal depute Martina Eastwood that she also saw Plusa on December 8, as she walked home alone.

Both teenagers told the court they were now frightened to go out alone at night.

In his evidence, Plusa maintained he was not following them and told his lawyer, Kevin Hughes, that the encounters were “coincidental”.

“I did not have any malicious intent or any intentions of doing anything bad or wrong.” Sheriff Sara Matheson heard.

“Your conduct caused them to be alarmed, causing them to run and you continued to follow them and you broke into a run.

“I am also satisfied that you followed them on the other occasions.

You ought to have known that your conduct, which was not reasonable, would cause them fear and alarm.

“Men on the streets require to do better.” At the sentencing hearing, Mr Hughes told the court his client had struggled to find employment since his conviction.

He said: “In relation to the possibility of repetition of this behaviour he has told me this morning his would not repeat this behaviour in any circumstances.” Sheriff Matheson placed Plusa on a community payback order requiring him to complete 150 hours of unpaid work in the community within six months.

She also made him subject to non-harrassment orders preventing him from approaching or contacting his victims for three years.