A church minister has told of his experience after a man was sentenced for launching a hate-fuelled campaign.

Reverend Kelvin Holdsworth, of St Mary's Cathedral Episcopal Church in Glasgow, was bombarded with letters and postcards by 57-year-old Damon Kelly.

In the hate mail, Rev Holdsworth was told to "hang himself" and that gay people were "devil's droppings".

Kelly, from Orkney, was ordered to carry out 250 hours of unpaid work during a hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court on Thursday.

In a piece written for STV News, the minister explains what it was like coming face-to-face with his tormentor and his frustrations with the court process.

He also insists that no hate campaign will change him or his congregation.

It isn't every day that you come face-to-face with someone who has sent you hate mail and who told you he wishes you were dead.

However, that happened to me this week, with the conclusion of the trial of Damon Kelly at Glasgow Sheriff Court. Mr Kelly was found guilty of threatening and abusive behaviour aggravated by prejudice relating to sexual orientation and transgender identity.

This began two years ago with a service in St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow in which local Christians and Muslims shared their traditions of Jesus being born. It was a lovely evening enjoyed by both communities. However, it led to strong condemnation afterwards from many who hadn't been there. Some of that condemnation was threatening, and as we now know, was criminal behaviour.

In the case of Mr Kelly, condemnation of the event turned into threats against me, particularly targeting me as a gay man and someone publicly supportive of LGBT people.

I could not speak more highly of the way in which Police Scotland handled this case - making it clear from the outset that hateful material will not be tolerated.

Going to court is another matter though. It is obvious that the court system in Glasgow is creaking at the seams under the sheer volume of work. The time people spend in court waiting for justice is astonishing.

If the system can be made to work better, so many of our police officers would be better able to tackle crime rather than waiting around to give evidence.

Appearing as a witness is horrible. After endless waiting, you eventually make it into the court and it was at that point that I came face-to-face with the person accused of threatening me, sitting in the dock just a couple of feet away.

To make matters worse, he had elected to defend himself and that gave him the right to cross-examine the witnesses. Yes, those of us who had received the threatening messages in the first place, were then cross-examined by the same person in court.

At some point in the future, I'll be making it my business to contact politicians to ask them to ensure courts are reformed to deal with situations where defendants represent themselves.

There were odd lighter moments in all this. Mr Kelly claims to be a monk and appeared in court wearing a habit. I was wearing clerical dress and one of his witnesses was another monk. At one point we all trooped out into the corridor where there were a couple of men waiting to go into another court. One looked at the other, raised his eyebrows and said: "This f****** court is starting to feel like f****** Sunday mass."

At the end of all this, I do have a strong sense of relief that the court process is over. At last, I can get on with my life. And my congregation can get on with doing what it does. Our aspiration is to be an open, inclusive and welcoming congregation in Glasgow.

No hate mail or criminal behaviour of any kind is going to change who we are.