MUM LIVING IN FEAR OF EX-PARTNER WHO’S ON RUN FROM POLICE
AMUM has spent more than six months living in fear of her former partner who is wanted by police. Carly Whitty had a short and traumatic relationship with Anthony Garcia late last year that ended when he savagely trashed her home after finding out she had reported him to the police.
Garcia, 30, smashed the window in her front door, ripped a toilet from the wall, and wrecked Carly and her three-year-old son’s bedrooms.
A restraining order was put in place to protect the 26-year-old mother of one, but after two breaches Garcia was jailed for 12 weeks in January.
Since his release in March, Carly has had to report several messages Garcia has sent to her and her family over Facebook.
He is now wanted by both South Wales Police and Gwent Police for multiple breaches of his restraining order, but after six months the 30-year-old with links to Caerphilly, Cardiff, Barry and Glasgow is still at large.
For the past six months Carly said she has had to wear a personal alarm, and has been limited in where she can go on her own.
“It’s one thing after another and it’s never ending,” she said. “It is really worrying. They cannot trace him at all.
“It is traumatising. I still have to walk around with my alarms. It is not a way to live.”
Carly’s relationship with Garcia began during an end-of-season holiday in Corfu last year where he was working as a singer.
Garcia helped her move into a house in Barry in December, and he
said he would be moving in with his father.
But Carly soon found Garcia had moved in without her consent and he wouldn’t leave.
Things about their relationship began to trouble her. She said he began to influence the amount of contact she would have with friends and family, and wouldn’t contribute to the cost of running the house.
After one traumatic incident where Carly said he tried to stop her leaving the house to see a friend, she contacted the police.
Officers removed him from the house because he wasn’t a tenant, but he returned hours later in a rage.
When Carly arrived at the house, the front door had been kicked in, a toilet had been ripped from the wall, and both her and her son’s bedrooms had been trashed.
The new racing car bed she had bought for her son had been broken, the whole thing flipped on its side and the wooden panels torn from the frame.
Garcia was arrested at the property, and appeared at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, January 22, charged with causing criminal damage to Carly’s home.
He pleaded guilty, and received a 24-month community order, 20 days’ rehabilitation activity requirement, a 33-day building better relationship course and 120 hours’ unpaid work.
A restraining order was also put in place preventing him from contacting Carly, visiting her home or her parent’s house until January 21, 2022, and Carly had CCTV installed at her home.
But neighbours kept reporting seeing Garcia visit her home, which was captured by Carly’s CCTV.
On January 29, 2019, he appeared at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court and admitted two counts of breaching a restraining order.
He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison.
But since his release, Carly said she and her family have received numerous messages from Garcia, prompting police to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Since March, Garcia has appeared in South Wales Police appeals for information relating to his whereabouts.
“I can’t talk about it to anyone because if I do I cry and there’s nothing we can do anyway,” Carly said.
“It is something that no one can help me with. It is here all the time. I have got my son to worry about, which is bad enough as it is.
“The police keep saying you are doing the right thing and reporting everything but it is eight months [later] and it really gets to you.”
Carly said she has reported alleged incidents where Garcia has contacted her or her family on March 11, March 17, April 7, June 10 and August 8.
“You are just literally looking over your shoulder permanently,” she said.
“It is really hard. There’s only so much you can hold your head up to and it knocks you right back.”
Garcia is wanted in connection with multiple breaches of a restraining order by both South Wales Police and Gwent Police.
He is known to have links to Caerphilly, Cardiff, Barry and Glasgow.
Anyone with any information relating to his whereabouts can contact 101 quoting reference 1900095601 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.