A DUNBAR dog owner who carried out a stalking campaign against a local woman by following and filming her failed to appear at court for sentencing after he missed his train.

David Page followed and filmed the woman for over five years after he had spotted her Labradoodle with his greyhound-cross while he was out on a walk.

Page, 52, used a GoPro camera, a mobile phone and a long-lens camera to intimidate the woman and her family when they took their own dog out for walks in Dunbar.

The terrified victim was forced to change her dog walking routine and Page’s campaign of intimidation eventually came to a stop when he called in the police to complain about the woman’s husband shouting at him in the street.

He called in police to look at the footage of the abuse he had captured but then incriminated himself after the officers spotted numerous recordings of the woman and her family on his phone.

Page denied the allegations but was found guilty of causing fear and alarm to the woman and her family between January 2012 and October 2017 following a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last July.

He was also found guilty of a separate charge of using abusive language towards employees at East Lothian Council during a phone call on October 8, 2017.

Sheriff Alistair Noble had issued Page with a four-year non-harassment order banning him from approaching the woman and deferred full sentence to last Friday.

But Page, of Castle Street, missed the hearing after Sheriff Alistair Noble was told he had missed his train and would be attending court late.

Sheriff Noble decided to deal with the case in his absence and deferred sentence for a further six months for Page to adhere to the non-harassment order and be of good behaviour.

Page was found guilty of engaging in a course of conduct that caused fear and alarm by repeatedly watching, following and filming the woman and members of her family in Dunbar between January 1, 2012, and October 8, 2017, following a summary trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last July.