A Zimbabwean taxi driver, Lovemore Chirwa, 41, was so much ‘in love’ with a woman that in a bid to escape his advances she fled Scotland. Lovemore was spared a jail sentence after a court heard he believed God wanted them to be together.
Lovemore bombarded Primrose Masunda, 27, with letters, phone calls and texts – and even offered to ‘buy’ her from her parents – after they met at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, in Paisley.
Chirwa, who was already married to someone else, also turned up at Masunda’s house with flowers and followed her in his taxi.
Giving evidence at Paisley Sheriff Court, the victim cried as she told how she had to leave the country because she couldn’t cope with his unwanted advances.
Chirwa, who is originally from Zimbabwe but now lives in Linwood, had denied causing Masunda fear and alarm by hassling her for almost three years.
He only admitted his guilt after she broke down while facing him during the trial.
The court earlier heard how Masunda alerted the police to Chirwa’s unwanted advances six times before he was arrested.
Between August 2011 and June last year, he texted and called Masunda to ‘declare his love,’ before offering money to buy her from her parents.
When she didn’t return his calls, he began following her and contacting her mum, uncle and their pastor.
He also copied pictures of her from Facebook, using them as his profile photo on mobile messaging tool WhatsApp.
The images were captioned ‘my future wife’ and ‘the gift of my life.’
Defence agent Scott Banks claimed Chirwa, who is now divorced, was guided by strong religious beliefs and had been assessed by social workers as being ‘low risk’ when it comes to the chances of him re-offending.
(via The Zimbabean)
