MAGISTRATES have jailed a man who twice "flagrantly" breached a restraining order that was meant to ban him from contacting a woman in Carlisle.

Mark Goodwin, 55, was given the order at the city’s Magistrates’ Court on January 22 yet he breached it twice within the space of a few days earlier this month. The defendant, of Highbury Grove, north London, admitted harassment.

This took the form of him flouting the court order.

The court heard that the first offence happened on April 20. The breach consisted of a phone call to the protected woman which the defendant made from London. Such contact was prohibited under the terms of the restraining order.

Four days later, Goodwin committed the second breach by entering an area of Carlisle which the court had banned him from.

Jailing him for 26 weeks, magistrates said there was a “flagrant” disregard for the order. At the time, he was also under post-sentence supervision. The defendant was represented by defence lawyer Chris Toms.