Man, 80, hid in bushes to stalk woman while she walked her dog

A pensioner convicted of stalking a woman has been jailed for 24 months after hounding her and two other people.

Dennis Hislop, 80, spent time behind bars after he kept tabs on the then 27-year-old in Glasgow’s Parkhead and Dalmarnock.

Hislop tailed her several times a day as she walked her dog.

The retired metal worker told police that he hid in bushes with binoculars looking in the direction of her house.

Hislop also concealed himself in bushes at Celtic Park to leer at her and fled after being pointed out to the police.

Hislop was convicted of stalking between February 2020 and June 2022 at Glasgow Sheriff Court.

Hislop was released from prison after trial and put on a tag for 12 months and ordered to stay 200 metres from the woman and not to enter her street.

However, Hislop was back in the dock for breaching his non-harassment order (NHO) against the woman.

He was also convicted of a further charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner against a teenage girl and a man.

Jurors heard Hislop first flouted the NHO and a court undertaking in September 2023.

Prosecutor Danielle McGuinness put to Hislop: “Why did she see you a couple of months after the NHO was put in place in bushes at the bottom of her street?”

He replied: “She has an iPhone. I pass her regularly walking her dog in my car – she watches me go up to Bridgeton where I stay.

“Why did she not take a picture if she saw me there?”

The trial earlier heard from an 18-year-old girl who also came across Hislop in the area in 2023.

She first became aware of him amid claims he put a note on her mum’s windscreen at the Emirates Arena when she came to pick up her daughter.

The girl stated: “The note said she was a paedo and that I felt unsafe around my mum and that I came to him and told him this.”

An allegation that he put a note on the car was found not proven by the jury.

The girl denied ever speaking to Hislop and claimed that he was a stranger to her.

She also recalled times Hislop confronted her and her boyfriend in the streets around Parkhead.

The girl stated that Hislop told them that he was “quite famous” with “young boys” in the area as he managed to get a signed Rangers football.

His previous trial heard Hislop claimed he had a contact at Rangers who got him a signed ball from ex-player Ryan Kent for a boy he knew.

The girl stated that Hislop would “watch us” walk up a street in Parkhead while he was pulled up in his car.

The witness recalled a time when she saw Hislop knelt down in bushes near the Emirates Arena.

She said: “He got caught up in twigs…I was quite shocked. I honestly didn’t think he was waiting on me and I think he was shocked that someone had noticed him.”

The girl stated in another encounter that Hislop told her boyfriend that she was “not to be scared” of him.

She added that she would see Hislop driving round the street three times a day at the time.

Hislop was also convicted of repeatedly following a man in his car which included following him home.

The man told the court that Hislop “made my life a misery” and he had to sell his car because of him.