A social worker, who was so traumatised by the vile abuse she suffered from a Selkirk man, immediately quit her job, the town's sheriff court has been told.

Dale Maxwell pleaded guilty at Selkirk Sheriff Court to shouting and swearing and threatening staff at the Selkirk Family Centre on February 13.

The 41-year-old was jailed for 180 days.

He also admitted making threatening telephone calls to staff at the social work offices in Rosetta Road, Peebles, on two occasions during February.

Maxwell also pleaded guilty to a separate complaint of threatening and abusive behaviour within his Sentry Knowe home over a five month period by banging doors and shouting and swearing at children.

Sheriff Peter Paterson told Maxwell a custodial sentence was inevitable.

He said: "You deliberately subjected a social worker to a protracted course of vile abuse and threats of serious crime and violence.

"It was to such an extent that the social worker immediately gave up her job"

Maxwell received four concurrent prison sentences totalling 180 days.