A MAN harassed his ex-partner over several weeks having begun his criminal contact with a message which read: “I will come and smash your face in.”

Matthew Adam Taylor, 31, made the threat on October 1. The next day he turned up at her house “shouting and swearing abuse outside”, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

Taylor went into the woman’s property, asking why she was “dolled up” and wearing make-up.

Five days later he sent more messages to her and shouted comments at men in the vicinity of his ex.

She reported his harassment to police.

“She had asked him to stop but he ignored that and continued to message,” said prosecutor Brendan Burke, “even continuing after the police had been to see him.”

And, said Mr Burke, “the tone got nastier”.

Taylor, of Sandy Lonning, Maryport, threatened to assault the woman’s son, delivered vile verbal abuse and made accusations.

She again went to the police, who later visited her address after more contact from him via an unknown number. “That very day,” said Mr Burke of the officers’ visit, “she received multiple calls from the defendant, some of them even coming through while the police were present at her address.”

There were more messages from Taylor who pretended it wasn’t him. “Stop getting the lad locked up,” said one. “He has suffered enough.”

Taylor also spoke to her on October 26 while she was in Workington with a friend.

In court today (thurs), Taylor admitted harassment between September 29 and October 29.

That offence was committed in breach of a community order imposed earlier this year for an affray, Taylor having challenged his half-brother to a fight against a background of bad blood.

Taylor also flouted the order by twice failing to attend for unpaid work as he and the woman’s relationship broke down.

Kim Whittlestone, defending, said Taylor had already served the equivalent of a 10-week prison sentence on remand. She suggested the community order could remain with Taylor reassigned to a thinking skills course. This, she said, he “desperately needs to address how he deals with conflict within relationships”.

Judge Ian Unsworth KC jailed Taylor for a total of six months after noting he had an “appalling” criminal record. “It is absolutely clear that over a period of a month or thereabouts, the defendant subjected (the woman) to behaviour which was clearly criminal in its nature,” said the judge.

“This was abusive behaviour committed, as it was, against a background of a domestic relationship.”

Taylor was banned from contacting the woman and other named individuals for five years.

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