A MAUCHLINE man has admitted behaving abusively towards a woman he was seeing while cheating on his wife of 35 years.

Alexander Kerr, 62, behaved in a threatening manner towards the younger woman over a period of five months.

Kerr admitted an amended charge of behaving abusively towards the complainer while at a school in Auchinleck and elsewhere between February 1 and June 23, 2021.

He also sent abusive messages to the woman, as well as damaging her phone and lunging towards her.

He also admitted stealing her mobile phone and deleting messages from the device.

The charge was aggravated because it involved abuse of a former partner.

When Kerr returned to Ayr Sheriff Court for sentencing last week, defence solicitor Robert Logan told the judge his client was deeply ashamed of his actions.

Mr Logan said: “He pled guilty to a significantly amended charge.

“I’m not going to go into any of the details [of the relationship with the complainer].

“He was quite astounded the young lady wanted to be in the relationship. I think it’s fair to say he was out of his depth.”

Sheriff Mhairi MacTaggart told the court she did not want to impose any financial penalty, adding that Kerr's wife "has been punished enough".

She put Kerr on a community payback order with 18 months of social work supervision and ordered him to complete 120 hours of unpaid work.

A non-harassment order was imposed forbidding Kerr, of Alexander Terrace, from having any form of contact with the victim for two years.