An Airdrie fantasist who admitted stalking and terrorising her friend is trying to withdraw her guilty plea.
Jill Sharp confessed in March to carrying out a terrifying campaign against a pal and her partner.
The 33-year-old created fake online profiles to target her victims with abuse over a three-year period. She contacted their workplaces alleging they were involved in criminality.
Sharp appeared at Livingston Sheriff Court last week to be sentenced. But it emerged during the hearing that she denied much of the conduct to which she’d previously pled guilty.
Sharp made the denials to a social worker compiling background reports.
Her solicitor, Nicky Matteo, told the sheriff that he felt “duty-bound” to seek a withdrawal of her plea. Mr Matteo said his client’s denials made any plea of mitigation difficult.
Sheriff Douglas Kinloch set a hearing to consider the application for July; both Sharp’s defence and the Crown will present arguments.
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Fiscal depute Jim Robertson, prosecuting, said the Crown would “strongly contest” the application.
Sheriff Kinloch told Sharp: “You have said things to the social worker which contradict, or appear to contradict, your plea of guilty.
“It’s a big step for someone to withdraw a plea of guilty made in an indictment case.
“The Crown has indicated they will strongly oppose it.”
The sheriff added the withdrawal of a guilty plea was a “complicated matter”.
Sharp previously pled guilty to a charge under stalking laws.
She admitted causing fear and alarm to her victims between 2014 and 2017.
