A SPURNED boyfriend who is accused of 'stalking like' behaviour towards his ex has been banned from the Carlisle park where she walks her dogs. 

Carl Harkness, 51, who denies any wrongdoing, could now be arrested if he goes near to Hammond's Pond in Upperby under the terms of a strict five-year court order.

Cumbria Police made an application to a District Judge at the city’s Rickergate court for a Stalking Prevention Order, which is intended to give the woman involved tough legal protection.

Outlining the background, lawyer Mari Clancy, for Cumbria Constabulary, referred to a series of statements from both the woman involved and police officers.

Harkness and the woman had been in an eight-year relationship, which has now ended.

Despite this, she reported he has made persistent attempts to contact her, against her wishes. Hoping for a reconciliation, he has told her he can not live without her and loves her.

When he went uninvited to her home, she tried to deal with it by not answering the door, said Miss Clancy.

“But he was persistent, shouting her name through the letter box,” said the lawyer. 

“He would turn up at Hammond's Pond, where she liked to walk her dogs. He admitted that he was deliberately going to Hammond’s Pond in the hope of seeing [the woman].”

The woman had been left “anxious and fearful” that Harkness, who is said to have been violent towards her in the past, would turn up at her address.

When she refused to respond to his message, he became abusive, said Miss Clancy. The woman also suspected that Harkness had slashed the tyres on her new partner’s car and loosened the wheel nuts.

This allegedly happened when the car was parked outside her address.

When he was arrested on suspicion of stalking, Harkness denied the offence, saying any contact between him and the woman was consensual. He also denied damaging the vehicle.

On March 19, the woman received 24 WhatsApp messages from what she believes was Harkness’s phone.

District Judge John Temperley said he was satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that Harkness had carried out acts associated with stalking and that he poses a risk associated with stalking.

He ruled that a Stalking Protection Order was necessary to protect the woman from that risk. He noted that an interim order had hitherto had the desired effect.

The five-year order bans Harkness from having any contact with the woman and her partner and the woman’s mother. The order also includes an exclusion zone preventing Harkness from going near to where the woman lives.

The defendant, of Oswald Street, Carlisle, must pay the £3,433 costs of preparing the case for court.  The protective order is civil in nature and the judge's ruling does not amount amount to a criminal conviction. 

Harkness was not in court for the hearing.