East Lothian crime: Disabled author and wife found guilty of hate campaign against North Berwick neighbours
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
David and Jacqueline Aston targeted their East Lothian neighbours by recording them “almost on a daily basis” and making false reports to the police and local authority over a three year period.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdJacqueline Aston, 58, reported one horrified neighbour to the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) in a bid to wreck her teaching career claiming she was neglecting her children.
The staff nurse also claimed the woman’s partner was running a business from his home and accused him of assaulting her at their plush estate at Blackadder Crescent in North Berwick.
The neighbours said they were left “scared and worried” after discovering David Aston, 55, had written a book called A Stroke of Fortune that featured a character who develops superpowers following a stroke. The character then uses his superpowers to wreak revenge on the local community.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdMr Aston, a former chartered accountant, penned the novel after suffering serious injuries including brain trauma and a massive stroke following a motorway car crash 10 years ago.
The victims of the couple described their three year ordeal as “intimidating”, “utterly appalling” and “a living hell” as well as seriously affecting their health.
The Astons denied all the allegations made against them and have stood trial over 21 days in a hearing spanning 11 months at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHigh school teacher Catriona Henderson and her partner Stuart McMorris moved into the estate with their children in 2018 and first fell out with the Astons over the positioning of bins.
Ms Henderson, 45, told the trial Jacqueline Aston had subsequently contacted the GTCS to report her for neglecting her children and claim she was using drugs including laughing gas and crystal meth.
Ms Henderson said Mrs Aston had told the teaching authority she had locked one of her children out in the cold without adequate clothing in the middle of winter. 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.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdShe also told the court she was left “scared and worried” after finding out about David Aston’s book and believed her family may been used as “a project” for the novel.
Mr McMorris, 46, told the court he was left “astonished” when he found David Aston’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.”
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdMr McMorris said a complaint was also made to the NSPCC by ”an anonymous neighbour” who claimed he and his partner were neglecting and abusing their children.
Another neighbour, Marie Bain, told the trial the Astons had made her life “a misery” due to them using phones and cameras to record her “almost on a daily basis”
Mrs Bain, 67, said her neighbours raised a court action against her and during the legal process discovered they had made 248 recordings of her family - including 67 times in just one day.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdHusband Robert Bain, 64, described the “constant monitoring” as “stalking” and said he was eventually forced to cancel family gatherings in their garden.
The engineer said: “We moved to North Berwick to our dream home to retire to, but the dream has turned to a nightmare.”
The Astons told the trial the neighbours “did not like us” and had made up the allegations in a bid to make them move away from the estate. Mrs Aston also claimed the reports to the police, the council and the GTCS were not malicious as she had grounds for concern over her neighbour’s behaviour.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdShe said she and her husband were keen bird watchers and regularly used cameras and binoculars to enjoy their hobby while inside their home.
But after 20 days of evidence from 17 Crown witnesses and four defence witnesses, Sheriff John Cook found the Astons guilty of causing three sets of neighbours fear and alarm between October 2018 and October 2021.
Mrs Aston was also found guilty of assaulting Mrs Bain by striking her with a bin and to breaching bail conditions on three occasions.
On Thursday, September 12, Sheriff Cook deferred sentence on the Astons for the preparation of reports to next month.