Man who stalked former SNP candidate Catriona MacDonald jailed and banned from contacting her

Sean White harassed victim Catriona MacDonald while she was working for nationalist MP Joanna Cherry over a nine week period in 2022.

White, 53, followed Ms MacDonald to a bar while she was attending an Edinburgh Fringe show after she had failed to reply to a barrage of Facebook messages he had sent.

White also sent a sexually suggestive email to Catriona MacDonald claiming he had a dream about her where he had “pushed her against a wall” and kissed her.

Catriona MacDonald | Alex Lawrie

He then turned up at the office she worked at as an aide to Ms Cherry in Edinburgh city centre in an effort to apologise for his behaviour.

Ms MacDonald, 39, was the SNP candidate for the Edinburgh South constituency in the 2019 General Election and stood against sitting MP Ian Murray.

Murray won with a hefty majority but Ms MacDonald achieved a three per cent swing towards the SNP and won plaudits for her campaign.

White, from Dalry, Edinburgh, denied the stalking allegations but was found guilty by a sheriff following a trial at the capital’s sheriff court earlier this year.

He was remanded in custody and was back in the dock for sentencing earlier this week where Sheriff Charles Gill jailed him for a total of 140 days backdated to his remand date in May.

Sheriff Gill also imposed a non-harassment order banning White from approaching or contacting Ms MacDonald in any way for the next 10 years.

Ms MacDonald told the trial she had been left “distressed” and “frightened for my safety” during the two month stalking campaign between June 30 and September 1, 2022.

She said there had been unwanted contact with White in previous years and had told him on several occasions to stay away and not to contact her.

The SNP employee told the court on one occasion she had been at a bar with her partner before attending an Edinburgh Fringe poetry show and had spotted White standing nearby staring at her.

The 39-year-old paralegal said she was “distressed” to see him at the bar and that she and her partner were forced to leave the area due to his presence at Teviot Row on August 20, 2022.

The court heard when Ms MacDonald got home around midnight she checked her emails to find a message from White telling her he had dreamt about her.

The email stated: “I had a dream of a woman and I pushed her against a wall and I kissed her. The next day when I examined it I realised it was you.” 

Ms MacDonald told the court: “I felt quite disgusted when I saw the content. I was frightened for my safety. It was quite clear this was an escalation. It was a description of what I perceive to be a sexual assault.”

The court was also shown CCTV footage from outside the former constituency office of Joanna Cherry KC where Ms MacDonald was employed at the time.

The footage showed White loitering outside and then attempting to speak to staff through the intercom system before leaving at around 3pm on September 1, 2022.

Ms MacDonald said she later discovered several lengthy Facebook messages from White that had been sent to her prior to the incident at the bar.

White told the court he had gone to Ms MacDonald’s place of work at the constituency office in an attempt to “apologise” to her.