A fantasist who admitted stalking and terrorising a friend is trying to withdraw her guilty plea to the charge.
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 Margaret and Steven Paton with abuse over a three-year period. She sent emails to their workplaces alleging they were involved in criminal activity.
Sharp appeared at Livingston Sheriff Court yesterday to be sentenced.
Teen seriously injured on Sauchiehall Street in late-night attack outside Glasgow takeaway
But it emerged during the hearing that Sharp denied much of the conduct to which she’d previously pled guilty.
She’d 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.
Matteo said his client’s denials made any plea of mitigation difficult under the circumstances.
Sheriff Douglas Kinloch set a hearing to consider the application for July.
Both Sharp’s defence and the Crown will present arguments over the matter.
Glasgow schoolgirl 'slashed in the face' as thug tried to steal phone in terrifying attack
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, of Airdrie, previously pled guilty to a charge under stalking laws.
She admitted causing fear and alarm to Margaret and Steven between 2014 and 2017.
