An IT executive who poured liquid outside his neighbour's door in an "irrational" response to treading in a dog poo has been fined £320.
Andy Clark said he had got angry after stepping in the poo in flip-flops, while putting rubbish out at the rear of privately-owned flats in Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire.
He then walked the faeces throughout his flat.
Clark, 53, an IT account manager for a computer wholesale company, said "anger got the better of him" and he went upstairs and threw a glass of water at the bottom of the front door of his neighbour, Iona Rodger, who owned the flat above him.
He said he had been "frustrated" by his dealings with Miss Rodger, a 24-year-old financial services worker, who lived in the flat above him with her rescue dog, Rocky.
He said: "Anger got the better of me and I threw a glass of water at the bottom of her door after standing in some dog poo while putting out the bin, and traipsing it through my flat."
He was arrested after Miss Rodger's then boyfriend filmed the bizarre incident through her front door peephole, and chased him downstairs.
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard Miss Rodger had suffered a spate of incidents which she linked to Clark, which began in 2018 when he complained to her about a leaky pipe.
She said: "He didn't like Rocky at all and he'd constantly accuse me.
"He said if I didn't shut Rocky up he'd string him up from the top of the flats."
Prosecutor Katie Cunningham asked: "What did you take that to mean?"
Miss Rodger replied: "That he'd hang him."
She said a notice had been pinned to the close wall, which said: "Flat 21 - stop letting your dog shit everywhere."
The court heard Clark had made "a throat slitting gesture" through the slats of window blinds while Miss Rodger she was out walking Rocky, and Miss Rodger's younger sister, while dog-sitting, described dog mess being posted through Miss Rodger's letterbox, apparently by a man - bald-headed like Clark - who then walked back down the common stair.
Miss Rodger said Rocky was not responsible for any dog mess around the flats, as she walked him well away from the block.
During a 90-minute summary trial, Clark, who has since moved and now lives in Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire, denied stalking Miss Rodger and threatening to hang her dog, but accepted he was responsible for pouring water at her door.
He insisted: "I'm a dog lover."
Sheriff Derek Livingston found him guilty of the alternative offence of committing a statutory breach of the peace.
He found that the incidents of which Clark was guilty had occurred at the flats in Hunter Gardens, Bonnybridge, between February 21st and 28th last year (2020).
Imposing the fine, he said: "I've not found established the threat about the dog or the threatening notice on the close walls.
"As far as the dog excrement [through the letterbox] is concerned I think it probably was you, but there's simply not enough that I can be satisfied about that beyond reasonable doubt.
Clark refused to comment as he left the court building.
