A9 Kessock Bridge ordeal as seven-times over-the-limit drunk-driver rams alarmed motorist

A drunk-driver terrorised a woman motorist he mistook for his wife by driving up and down the A9 near Inverness on the wrong side of the carriageway before ramming her vehicle on the Kessock Bridge.

Slawomir Stiller, of no fixed abode, was almost seven times the legal alcohol limit when his victim's ordeal began at 6.50pm and didn't end until 7.41pm on May 8 this year.

During that time the 999 service received a dozen emergency calls, some from the woman herself who was extremely distressed by the time police caught up with 49-year-old Stiller.

He had blocked the northbound carriageway on the bridge to exit his vehicle and hammered on her window.

Stiller was arrested and remanded in custody at Inverness Sheriff Court on May 9 and when he appeared before Sheriff Sara Matheson he admitted four charges.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving; driving with 136mcgs of alcohol in his system when the maximum is 22mcgs; assaulting the woman by ramming her car and threatening or abusive behaviour by punching her windows.

Sentence was deferred until August 6 for a background report and there was no application for bail by his lawyer, Patrick O'Dea.

The court was told the complainer had only driven a short distance from the Tore roundabout when she saw Stiller's van driving towards her also on the southbound carriageway, flashing his main beam.

Fiscal depute Emily Hood said: "She got a fright and pulled into the next layby and phoned her husband and thereafter made an attempt to phone 999."

The court heard Stiller then travelled around the Tore roundabout anti-clockwise with his hazard lights on and entered the northbound carriageway of the A9 while travelling south.

"Another motorist who was approaching the roundabout sounded his horn. The accused stopped his vehicle, straddling both lanes," Mr Hood said.

The other driver spoke with Stiller through his driver's side window, telling him he couldn't drive that way as he would cause an accident and offered to help him reverse back onto the roundabout.

"Stiller thereafter began to shout about his wife and spun his wheels while accelerating towards the verge and got past the stationary traffic. He mounted the central reservation to get around the stationary vehicle and was then seen travelling south in the northbound carriageway, driving slowly, erratically, swerving and hitting the verge.

CCTV and dashcam footage was shown to the court, with several cars having to take evasive action to avoid a collision, some swerving to avoid Stiller's van and others slowing down and stopping on the dual carriageway.

Ms Hood said the frightened woman again stopped in a layby to contact police and Stiller left his vehicle in the central reservation across from the layby, walked across the southbound carriageway, causing traffic to stop, and attempted to open her locked door.

He then re-entered his vehicle, continued to drive south in the northbound lane, making a U turn at a junction further down and travelled north again in the southbound carriageway before veering towards the woman's car and carrying on.

But he returned after calls to the police scrambled multiple units to try and trace Stiller.

He approached the woman's car again with his hazard lights on but she sped away at 70mph to try and escape, Ms Hood went on.

However he overtook her when she had to slow down for a lorry, pulled in in front of her and reversed into the front of her vehicle.

He again got out and tried to pull open her door while shouting. He got back in to his van and moved it diagonally across both lanes.

Police had arrived by this time and ushered him away from the distraught woman.

Ms Hood added: "She was in extreme distress and on the phone, and he was unsteady on his feet, agitated and was shouting and ranting in an incoherent manner towards the witness Swanson who he appeared to believe was his wife. He was then detained by officers."

A bottle of whisky and medication were seen inside his van.