A prison officer who carried out a terrifying campaign of harassment against his ex-girlfriend after she dumped him has been suspended from work.
Joe Pattie would turn up at Blayre Howie’s work and home, call her up to 70 times and send 50 texts a day abusing her or begging her to take him back.
At Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last month, Pattie admitted placing Blayre, 23, in a state of fear or alarm between July 2017 and January this year and is due to be sentenced this month.
Pattie remained in a job with employers Serco at HMP Kilmarnock until the Record exposed his abuse. We can now reveal he has been suspended.
Mum-of-one Blayre said: “He was obsessive, manipulative, controlling and a pathological liar. I had no choice but to contact the police as he wouldn’t leave me alone and his work wouldn’t do anything.
“But even after admitting everything in court, he still had his job. It was like what he did didn’t matter.
“He was a prison officer helping look after people who were in jail for doing a lot less than what he did to me.
“I don’t know how Serco could even guarantee his safety or that of his colleagues if inmates found out that he had been convicted too.”
Messages obtained by the Record show Pattie relentlessly contacted Blayre. In one voicemail, he said: “F****** phone me. I’ve not f****** messaged her. You’re f****** leaving me here, it’s ridiculous.”
Blayre said she complained to Serco three times about Pattie contacting her from work and made a complaint in January.
She said: “Once I had 70 missed calls from HMP Kilmarnock. I had to block the number.”
Pattie, 23, of Kilmarnock, did not respond to a request for comment.
Michael Guy, Serco’s prison director at HMP Kilmarnock, said: “When this matter was brought to our attention earlier in the year, we took all the appropriate steps necessary at that time. It is now a matter for the police and the courts.”
