By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 11:33, Saturday, 11 August 2012

A man who went round to his ex-wife’s house and shouted abuse at her from her garden after tormenting her with a plague of offensive text messages has been sent to prison for a year.

Bryan Stubbs, 53, had previously been banned by a court order from contacting his ex-partner Gillian, from whom he was divorced three years ago.

But he repeatedly flouted that order – sometimes with her consent – because he was frustrated by his inability to see as much of their teenage son as he wanted, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Alan Lovett said that Stubbs, who recently moved into a bungalow in Arnside Road, Harraby, had been convicted of violence against his wife in 2007.

And in 2009 – the year they were divorced – he was found guilty of harassing her by making numerous unwanted phone calls and visits to her home.

A few months later he was given a suspended sentence for breaching a restraining order intended to stop him pestering her.

And in 2010 he was in trouble for again breaching the court order by continuing to phone her and visit her.

And a passing policewoman also spotted him committing a sex act in his front room with the curtains open and the lights on.

Stubbs, who spent most of last year in prison on remand before being moved to a psychiatric hospital, was in December put on probation for a year on condition that he attended six-months’ alcohol rehabilitation.

The court heard he spent Christmas Day with his ex-wife and their son at her home in Webster Crescent and for a few months caused no further trouble.

But in June, after she failed to answer one of his text messages, he “went back to his old ways” and began sending her “extremely offensive” late-night messages, Mr Lovett said.

Stubbs pleaded guilty to a further breach of the restraining order, but his defence advocate William Mark-Bell said it had been caused only by his inability to see his son.

Passing sentence,Judge Paul Batty QC told Stubbs: “You have an extremely troubling record as far as your former wife is concerned. You wholly disregarded her feelings by bombarding her with these unpleasant text messages.”

The judge reimposed the restraining order for another three years, banning Stubbs from having any contact with his ex-wife or going near her home or to the working men’s club and solicitors’ office where she works as a cleaner.

First published at 10:52, Saturday, 11 August 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk