Man guilty of sending threatening letter to lord advocate

A man has been found guilty of sending threatening letters to Scotland's most senior law officer and the wife of a former first minister.

Matthew Sylvestre sent a handwritten note to the home of Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC warning "something nasty" could happen to her family.

The 61-year-old also sent emails to Nadia El-Nakla, the wife of ex-SNP leader Humza Yousaf, in which he caused her to fear for her safety and her family's safety.

Sylvestre was convicted of threatening or abusive behaviour at the High Court in Edinburgh.

He was cleared of acting in a threatening or abusive way to towards former Police Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone and ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Judge Lord Colbeck said he regarded the offence involving Bain as "effectively threatening" her family.

Sylvestre denied the allegations and claimed his fingerprints were found on the envelope used because they were stolen from him while he was in prison.

The letter was delivered to Bain's home on 23 April 2024 .

It contained a handwritten note stating: "Give me the keys of my flat and my wallet or something nasty will happen to Jamie down south England and to your sisters."

Bain said she believed this was a reference to her son, Jamie, who was then living in the south of England, and her sisters.

The envelope also had her full home address, which was not public knowledge.

A second letter was delivered to Bain's home days later, but she did not open it and handed both to police.

That note was found to contain the message: "keys flAT wallet FLAT COMPO RELEASE OR CHAINSAW".

Sylvestre sent emails to Dundee councillor El-Nakla from an address in Cullen, Moray and elsewhere between October 2023 and March 2024.

He denied the content of those emails was threatening.

A search of his cell at Perth Prison in May 2024 found another letter, this time addressed to First Minister John Swinney.

In the letter, he said he had been the "victim of a personal vendetta" by Yousaf and El-Nakla.

It added that his emails were "congratulating her on her impending new arrival to her family, criticising Hamas, and calling for tight immigration restrictions for Palestinians" following the attacks on Israel in October 2023.

He also claimed to have been "stalked" by 17 police constables and "CID" officers.

Following his conviction, the jury heard Sylvestre had spent time at the high security State Hospital at Carstairs after being sentenced to eight years for a 2004 serious assault.

Lord Colbeck deferred sentence until 19 June for a background report to be prepared.

Sylvestre was remanded in custody.