A Lewis distillery owner has been convicted of two charges of threatening or abusive behaviour.
Mark Tayburn was cleared of a third similar allegation while another accusation was dropped during a trial at Stornoway Sheriff Court
A bitter dispute over cattle grazing in the Uig district of Lewis was at the heart of the long running case the court was told.
The 53-
Sheriff Gordon Lamont also concluded he verbally threatened crofters James Halbert and Christopher Macritchie, 33, in Ardroil, Uig.
Delivering his verdict, the sheriff said the conduct of the two crofters should be "commended, not criticised."
"They approached you in a civil and cordial manner. Your actions were no doubt what they feared."
He called for background reports, deferring sentencing to March.
Tayburn who conducted his own defence was found not guilty of brandishing a stick at an estate worker while herding cattle through Uig and Hamanavay estate in 2017, and refusing to desist.
Earlier, the trial heard Tayburn had been “challenged why he was there."
Estate employees were not entitled to ask him to desist, he stated, maintaining a large swathe of area of land in the location was common grazings and anyone was entitled to be there under the Land Reform Act. In addition, he held the stick in a way which made it ineffective as a weapon.
A separate incident in March 2018 heard by the court concerning a balaclava-
Two witnesses told the court that Tayburn was with them on the other side of the island -
Tayburn challenged procurator fiscal Susan Love over extending the period of potential criminality up to six weeks on either side of the date stamp on the video. Earlier, she had opposed Tayburn's argument over authenticity issues in regard to the recording.
"She can't have it both ways. She nailed her colours to the mast that the date was 31 March," he stated.
The person moving the rooftop cameras of the unoccupied property was either erecting scaffolding or repairing windows and not acting "furtively or in a threatening manner," he stated.
The trial took longer than expected as important evidence turned up during proceedings. A covert audio recording of a profanity punctuated conversation between Tayburn and two crofters in October 2018 had not been provided to him or to the Crown.
The sheriff permitted the half hour-
He maintained his verbal threat to inject penicillin in sheep's genitals was framed in terms of retaliation if the crofters "continued to harass" his cattle.
The two men who secretly recorded him, "wished to provoke something that day," and he feared they intended to assault him, he stated.
They wrongly accused him of having his livestock in the village fank without permission, preventing others from using the facility, he said.
Tayburn added: "After explaining the cattle were not mine I sought to terminate the discussion and move on."
But James Halbert "went out of his way to be "tiresome and vexatious" he claimed.
Rows over livestock in Uig were behind the incidents, procurator fiscal Susan Love told the court.
"However, just because there's a dispute and people are not the best of friends doesn't allow anyone to behave in whatever manner."
Comments he made to the two crofters were "absolutely abhorrent," she added.
"Just because he thinks he has cattle grazing rights -
"Disputes were going on in the background but that's not a reasonable excuse to behave the way he did."
Earlier, a distillery worker gave evidence to the court she was "concerned" when she spotted James Halbert and Christopher Macritchie speaking to Tayburn during the 2018 incident.
"With everything that happened in the past I knew there would just be something else," she said.
"Multiple things" which previously occurred against Tayburn were reported to the police "but nothing was done about it" she told the court.
Previous concerns over Tayburn's cattle "getting chased by numerous people in Uig" as well as a Facebook message perceived to be threatening against him sparked an e-
Regarding the incident before the court, Christopher Macritchie had parked his van, "blocking the entrance to the fank," she said.
On questioning from the fiscal, the witness said: "I didn't see any aggression from anyone" during the event.
Cattle grazing dispute behind incidents, court told
26 January 2022