Pest spared jail despite harassing ex SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR BREACH
A PEST who harassed his former partner after she dumped him when she found out he was a sex offender has been spared prison.
Richard Arthur would not leave the woman alone after she ended their relationship when she found out about his past and heard he was seeing another woman.
As we reported previously, at the end of November last year, Arthur got a suspended prison sentence after he admitted breaching the restraining order and his notification requirements.
Despite the threat of the suspended sentence being activated, he brazenly ignored the court order within days of being released from custody, repeatedly making direct and indirect contact with his ex.
He was due to be sentenced for that in January but a judge released him from prison, where he had been held on remand for a month and deferred sentence to give him a chance to prove he can behave.
Now Recorder Jonathan Aitken, at Newcastle Crown Court, has imposed a suspended prison sentence after being told Arthur had not bothered the woman in the six months since he was last in court.
David Comb, defending, said the pre-sentence report said he had made “exemplary” progress and is engaging with rehabilitation work and continuing to work hard.
He added: “There is no suggestion of any further breach of the restraining order by making further attempts to contact the person in whose favour that order was made.
“In the six months since sentence was deferred he has abided by the order.”
Judge Aitken added further rehabilitation requirement days to the original sevenmonth suspended sentence and imposed a new suspended sentence of six months suspended for 12 months.
The indefinite restraining order also continues to apply.
Lee Fish, prosecuting, said in January that Arthur had been in a relationship with the woman from March until August last year.
He told the court: “The relationship ended when she found out he was in a relationship with another woman and found out he was a registered sex offender.
“There was then unwanted contact that resulted in a restraining order being imposed on November 29 for harassment and the defendant was also convicted of breaching his notification requirements.
“He was given a suspended sentence and a restraining order preventing contact with his former partner.
“Within a few days of the order being made, and he had been in custody until that point, he breached the restraining order.”
On December 2, Arthur wrote a message to the woman’s friend, apologising and expressing his love for his ex.
On the same day, the ex got a notification on dating app Badoo saying Arthur had visited her profile. And he also contacted her dad on Facebook,
apologising, expressing his love for her and saying he wished she would talk to him.
On December 7 he visited her Badoo profile twice, and again the following day.
Also on December 8, he left a comment about her on a Facebook post she had followed for a long time.
Mr Fish said: “The prosecution say these were blatant attempts to make contact with her a matter of days after the restraining order had been made and the suspended sentence imposed.”
The woman said in a victim impact statement: “This has made me feel frightened for my own safety. I’m not sleeping because I’m worrying in case he turns up at my house.”
Arthur, 34, of Harlequin Lodge, Felling, Gateshead, admitted breaching the restraining order.
Recorder Aitken told him in January: “You were warned what the consequences were and you went out within a few days and breached the restraining order.”
Mr Comb, defending, added: “He acknowledges he has behaved stupidly.
“He has spent a month in custody over Christmas, away from his two children, which has reinforced matters.”