A WOMAN has been found guilty of sending a racist message to the former partner of her brother.

Shannon McPake went on trial at Alloa Sheriff Court last Wednesday, January 9, after maintaining her innocence regarding a Facebook message which was sent to another woman.

The message, which was believed to have been sent on January 2, 2018, made reference to the complainer's past addiction to Valium and said that she slept with P***s.

The complainer, under questioning from Susannah Hutchison, fiscal depute, told the court that the message said: "Something about a P***, but that it was more about what else that was written, something about sleeping with P***s."

After showing her dad the message, the complainer contacted the police the same day.

In the text was an invitation for the woman to "move to P*** land, seeing as you like them, haha".

The vile message also made disparaging remarks about her family, before ending with: "I hope you end up in a box soon, hen".

The complainer told Ms Hutchison that she was "not happy", but conceded that she "just laughed" when she saw the message.

Referencing the part of the message which added that she "punted herself for Valium", she conceded she did have an addiction to the drug but had "dealt with my issues".

McPake, 23, then wrote: "Come to my door hen, I'm waiting."

On replies from the complainer to McPake, there was a time stamp which read 17:17, January 2, with no year. There was, however, no time stamp on the racist message from the accused.

Under cross-examination from McPake's defence agent Lisa McGuigan, the complainer said people in the area could not have known details about her life which her mentioned in the message.

She said: "People did not know there was a Turkish man living with me," although she later admitted that the accused's brother did know.

After evidence, Ms McGuigan entered a submission to Sheriff Keith O'Mahoney, saying there was no corroboration that the message was sent on January 2, or even in 2018.

She continued by saying there was no corroboration that it was even McPake who sent the message.

The sheriff rejected the submission, saying the name on the account, the picture and the ability to know the private information was enough evidence to infer that it was McPake who sent the message.

Sheriff O'Mahoney found McPake, of Clark Street, Bannockburn, guilty and deferred sentence until February 5 for reports to be prepared.