Dad told to say away from his ex-partner

A FATHER who harassed his ex-partner by waiting for her on the school route every day for SIX MONTHS has been given a restraining order.

Mohammed Arshad, of Royds Street, Accrington, said started making unwanted contact with the victim in August last year after a previous restraining order had ended.

The 37-year-old sent a ‘substantial number of text messages’ to his ex-partner in the hope of ‘trying to achieve a friendship with her’ but none of them were responded to, a court heard.

Prosecutor Alex Mann said none of the messages were threatening or abusive.

When Arshad found out the new address of his ex-partner, he posted four cards through her letter box.

Arshad pleaded guilty at Blackburn Magistrates Court to harassment between August 2018 and February 2019.

Ms Mann said his actions made the victim ‘feel uncomfortable, unsafe and uneasy’ and that the behaviour had ‘ruined her life’.

She told the court how Arshad parked on the school route every day at 3pm and ‘deliberately drove past her slowly’.

Defence solicitor Gareth Price said Arshad’s actions were ‘not something done with the intention of causing distress’.

He said: “This is the man who needs the challenge by probation service of the proposals recommended.

“There is perhaps a lack of full appreciation of the impact and how the behaviour is seen outside his own mind.”

Magistrates sentenced Arshad to a two-year community order with a 40-day rehabilitation activity requirement, a 40-day building better relationships programme requirement, a six-week curfew and ordered him to pay £85 costs.

He was also given a two-year restraining order with conditions not to attend the victim’s home or several streets near the school.