Stalker ordered to stay away from BBC presenter for life

A 71-year-old man who stalked a BBC Scotland presenter over a four-year period has been ordered to stay away from her for life.

Robert Green was arrested in 2024 after his behaviour escalated and he began targeting Anne McAlpine at her home.

The 39-year-old newsreader and journalist has now spoken about the impact of Green's "intrusive and intimidating" behaviour.

Sheriff Owen Mullan sentenced Green to two years' supervision and imposed a lifetime non-harassment order which prevents him from contacting Anne.

Green, who denied the charges, was found guilty of engaging in a course of conduct which left Anne in fear and alarm between February 2021 and November 2024.

Sheriff Mullan told Green his behaviour had been "sinister, unwelcomed and upsetting for your victim" and that the sentence was a direct alternative to prison.

Ann said her ordeal started with letters being delivered to the BBC Scotland's headquarters in Glasgow in 2021.

"The contents of the letters were a mixture of declarations of love, poetry and I would receive gifts - CDs, jewellery, all from the same person.

"Sometimes I would receive up to three or four in one week, every week for about eight to 12 months, roughly. They were all dated, they were all signed, so it's easy enough to have a reference point."

She said they made her uncomfortable, but she didn't report it.

"A lot of the time, I didn't even open a lot of these letters. They would end up in the bin, depending on where I was, where I received them or opened them.

"Eventually that ended up being quite crucial evidence, but I didn't know that at the time."

The letters Green sent suggested they were in some sort of relationship.

He believed Anne was trying to communicate with him on TV through her clothes, the colours she wore, the way she moved, the way she held her pen.

The content suggested he was watching all of her appearances, fixating on what she was wearing, what she was saying, what she was doing.

Then he started to talk about trying to make contact.

Anne said: "He mentioned phoning reception, trying to get a number for me, trying to get put through, which was obviously unsuccessful."

Then in October 2021, Anne got engaged to cameraman Ken McAlpine.

Her TV career was flying. She was a regular presenter on BBC Scotland News programmes, had a prominent role on countryside programme Landward, and did voiceover work on Scotland's Home of The Year.

Anne proudly wore her engagement ring on air.

The letters from Green had continued, but now something shifted.

"The tone of the letters then changed to feeling, talking about how upset he was and he didn't know there was somebody special in my life," said Anne.

"At that point, he said he was going to stop correspondence and as far as I was concerned, that was the end of it.

"I was obviously engaged, he was upset, and he said he would back off and not write any more letters."

The letters did stop - but then in 2024, Green turned up at Anne's home as a colleague dropped her off.

She recalled: "It was dark and as I was getting ready to get out of the car, a man holding a carrier bag, sort of holding eye contact with me, started walking towards the car and something just felt off.

"He didn't look like he was friendly, didn't look like he was looking for directions or going to speak.

"So I closed the door, asked my friend to lock the doors.

"He came right up to the passenger side window and just looked in, which felt really uncomfortable and strange and I said to him [my friend]: 'I think you should drive off'."

They drove round the block and Anne phoned her fiancé to come down to the front door to meet her.

By the time he arrived, Green was gone.

A couple of months later Anne was woken up in the early hours by someone ringing her doorbell.

"It was between about 04:30 and 05:00 in the morning and he was holding the buzzer down for what felt like 20 to 30 seconds so it created that sense of urgency and chaos and panic, you know, someone's really trying to get a hold of me here, so I got up, checked my phone.

"Nothing on my phone, my husband was away, I was home alone.

"I answered the intercom and nobody was there, so I went to the window and there was a man standing in the middle of the road holding a carrier bag, looking up at the window.

"It was actually terrifying, it was really disconcerting because whoever it was, I didn't recognise him.

"He was holding a carrier bag - that was the thing that linked him back to the incident with getting dropped off in the car."

There were several more incidents of him ringing the doorbell at night and Ann discovered her neighbours had met Green outside the building.

He had been trying to get access, saying he was looking for Anne McAlpine.

Anne reported it to the police and, quite quickly, Green was arrested near her home.

She said: "It was through the police that we ended up making the connection between the letters and the person coming to the house and that it was in fact the same person."

It is now five years since it all began and the experience has had an enormous impact on Anne's life.

"I feel like I was maybe a little bit flippant about the whole thing. The Hebridean in me tried to make out I was okay.

"I think it's really important to talk about it. Nobody should ever be made to feel unsafe in their own home.

"It was intrusive, it was intimidating, it was a huge invasion of privacy.

"I still don't know what his intentions were. Why was he wanting into the house? How did he know where I lived?"

Anne said she felt "anxious and scared" and started to question everything.

"Do I want to be on TV if this is what it's going to do to you?" she said.

"Should I be moving house, should I be changing career?"

"It's a horrible feeling and I wouldn't wish it on anybody."

Anne admits she was lucky to have the support she received.

"Ultimately I went through a system that listened to me and believed me and I really am very grateful for that.

"I understand the power of that because there's so much stress around this sort of situation that if you had that added level of people not believing you or listening to you, it would just be a horrible situation to be in."

As she starts to move on, Anne admits she is "completely different" to the person she was before that first letter arrived.

She says she is much more anxious and more introverted than she was before.

"I'm processing everything and I'm trying not to let it take any more of me than it already has.

"But I did feel much more of a sense of relief than I expected," she admitted.

"I'm hopeful and I'm happy that I feel like I can draw a line under it because not everybody gets that sense of closure, I guess."

If you or anyone you know has been affected by the issues discussed in this article, help is available at BBC Action Line.