THE brother of Simple Minds singer Jim Kerr has been found guilty of stalking two “superfans”. A trial heard Paul Kerr threatened to murder John Fagan and drag his wife to a police station by her hair in a row over the Scottish band’s new album.
Kerr, 56, also falsely accused John Fagan of raping a nine-year-old boy and posted sexually abusive comments against him and his wife on public Facebook pages. He was found guilty at Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex of two counts of pursuing a course of conduct that amounted to stalking against the Fagans, and one of pursuing a course of conduct that amounted to stalking against his former girlfriend Elizabeth Vanthof.
The trial heard that Kerr sent emails to two police forces threatening to murder Fagan during the course of an 11-month campaign of abuse in 2018.
Fagan, who lives with his wife Julie in Canterbury, Kent, has seen Simple
Minds more than 300 times and was an active member of an online forum about the band. The dispute started when Fagan replied to a post on Kerr’s
Facebook page about the band’s new album, the court heard. Kerr had described the new record as “pure shit”.
Prosecutor Jonathan Edwards said: “Mr Kerr posted on his Facebook page that the Fagans had contacted him for help to harm Jim Kerr.
“That was untrue. Nevertheless it was put out there as a fact by this defendant and then he seemed to escalate things by posting again on his Facebook page that John Fagan was a rapist of a nine-year-old boy.”
The court heard Kerr took photos from the Fagans’ Facebook pages and reposted them with abusive messages.
The prosecution alleged Kerr used fake accounts, one in the name of his dead mother, to post “sexual abuse and allegations of rape”. Kerr also threatened to come to Canterbury to “cripple” Fagan and “drag Julie Fagan by her hair” to a police station.
Kerr was jailed for two years at Edinburgh High Court in 1998 for starting a fire at the home of a business associate after a venture went sour.
He was jailed for two years in 2013 after being convicted at Lewes Crown Court of aggravated burglary, assault causing actual bodily harm and criminal damage. He will be sentenced on January 6 after a psychiatric report.
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