AN ILLEGAL early morning visit to his mother’s home has earned a 44-year-old Maryport man a year in jail.

Repeat offender Derek Yule was given a non-contact restraining order after he attacked his mother, but his defence barrister said he flouted it by visiting her following the death of his sister and because he wanted to offer his condolences.

He admitted the offence - the third time he has breached the order.

Carlisle Crown Court heard that the non-contact order had been in place since 2023 but in the same year Yule breached it and was locked up for eight months. After his release, he breached it again in June and was given a 12-week suspended sentence.

After receiving the news that his sister had died, he reacted by going to the pub and drinking with friends, who told him he should “offer his condolences” to his mother.

This happened on the day he was given the suspended sentence. Brendan Burke, prosecuting, said he arrived at his mother’s front door at 2am and then began banging on the windows, shouting for his mother to let him in.

She had initially told him to go away but relented. “She did not want the disturbance on the at that time in the morning,” said Mr Burke. “She let him in and he stayed the night. His mother asked him to leave at 10am and he did as requested.”

Yule returned in the afternoon but his mother was out of the house, undergoing radiotherapy for cancer. He left but followed the visit up with “text messages” asking for food.

The court heard that Yule’s record consists of 33 previous offences.

The offences includes thefts, drink-related offending, criminal damage, assaults and having a bladed article illegally. He was also previously prosecuted for crimes linked to heroin, cannabis, and ecstasy and emergency worker assaults.

Marion Weir, defending, said: “His sister had passed away and he accepts that he gone straight to the pub and met up with friends. They were encouraging him to go to his mother’s house to express condolences.

“He should not have done it but he did.”

The barrister said Yule, of The Arches, Maryport, had also lost a brother and a cousin as recently as last Saturday and not yet had the opportunity to visit their graves.

She said the circumstances which led to the latest breach of the restraining order were “exceptional.”

Judge Nicholas Barker told the defendant: “You were banging on the door at 2am and do doubt you were drunk; she was suffering from the effects of cancer and having treatment.

"This was known to you.

“The court imposed a restraining order because they considered it necessary for the protection of your mother… You see your relationship with your mother as a one-way street for her to look after you but at 44 years of age you are a grown man.

“She has her own difficulties and challenges and does not need you turning up at 2am banging on her windows and shouting ‘Mam.’”

But the judge accepted Yule’s remorse and the background that included the death of his sister. He imposed a total jail term of 12 months, three months of which represented the activation of the earlier suspended sentence.

The restraining order remains in place.