Janice Galloway accused denies harrassment claims

A CONCERT pianist who faces claims he harassed a best selling author for more than 16 years told police she would not accept their relationship had ended.

Author Janice Galloway accused Graeme McNaught of harrassment which caused her 'fear and alarm'. Picture: Paul Parke

Graeme McNaught, 54, told officers that writer Janice Galloway couldn’t ‘let him go’ and wanted to set up secret meetings with him after she was married.  

The pair met in 1990 and had a six year on-off relationship during which James, 22, a London-based graphic designer, was born.

Miss Galloway later married opera singer Jonathan May and lives with him at their home in Uddingston, Lanarkshire.

McNaught, of Mount Vernon, Glasgow, is on trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court and faces a total of 10 charges of placing Miss Galloway in a state of fear and alarm. He has denied all the claims against him.

The court heard a taped police interview from February 2012 where McNaught said he had not wanted a sexual relationship after their split but had instead wanted to remain friends.

In the tape, he said: “We were great friends, we have the same sense of humour and we are both creative.

“I don’t think she can let me go. I let her go years ago. I think it was kind of all or nothing with me to her and I didn’t want that other bit.

“I never wanted a relationship with Janice Galloway. We met in the Arches in Glasgow one night and she told me how pleased she was to see me.

“She took me into a quiet corner and said, ‘We should go for a wee coffee in the town but I’m not going to tell Jonathan because he would just worry.’

“She didn’t want to tell me about Jonathan at first, she didn’t want me to think she had committed to someone else.”

The recording also heard McNaught admit that he had walked into Miss Galloway’s home uninvited and left a package in her kitchen in January 2012.

He told police he had wanted to leave her a letter letting her know he was going to sue her over claims she had made about his mental state in a book and TV interview.

He added: “I made the package for Janice in Amsterdam and I delivered it. I knocked the back door, I could see there was a light on and I did something I very rarely do, I tried the handle.

“The door was open so I walked in and left the package there. There was a letter in it to Janice intimating that I was taking her to court for defamation of character.

“The publication of her last book and seeing her appear on national television was the last straw.

“In an interview on STV she said that I am mentally ill and I am refusing to take medication.

“On a personal level I wish her no harm but she has written some terrible things. The allegation that this is a criminal act is utterly ludicrous.

“I have had dinner in that kitchen, it is my son’s house.  She is an incredibly strong woman, she wouldn’t be put into fear or intimidation by having a parcel delivered.”

The trial before Sheriff Ray Small continues.