Ex-neighbour made my life a living hell with threats and intimidation that lasted four years... I want to warn others of dangers

A Paisley mum granted a lifelong restraint order against a former neighbour has told of her concerns that other women could fall victim to the same “threats and intimidation” he made against her.

- CRAIG MCDONALD

Jacqueline McCaig, who runs the Old Swan pub, won a landmark court ruling against Paul Richardson after he had made her life a “living hell” over a period of years.

Richardson previously lived in a flat above the pub but was charged and pleaded guilty to “threatening and abusive behaviour” after he complained about a customer smoking outside the pub in 2020.

Jacqueline, 45, told how he then began a four-year campaign of harassment and intimidation which left her on the verge of a breakdown.

She spent £20,000 to successfully obtain a lifelong restraint order, granted last month, and has spoken out now to tell of her fears that other women could be similarly targeted by him.

She said: “He wanted me to try to get the initial charges against him dropped but this was something I had no control over.

“He then became very intimidating and I would see him standing outside, staring at me, as I opened the pub in the morning or locked up at night.

“It began to put me on edge and make me feel very uncomfortable and there was one occasion where he stood across the street in the pouring rain taking pictures for over five hours.

“He also came into the pub and tried to order a drink, despite knowing he had been banned. I felt as though he was targeting me, my female staff and my business.

“He made threats via customers that he would not stop until I was ‘torn apart piece by piece’ and via female staff that he was going to take me down ‘piece by piece!