Buying flowers for his wife lands abusive husband with spell in prison
BREACH OF RESTRAINING ORDER BLEW LAST CHANCE TO STAY FREE
A HUSBAND who bombarded his estranged wife with abusive messages was given a chance to stay out of prison but blew it by buying her flowers.
Aaron Jackson was told on March 10 that if he breached a restraining order he would be sent to prison.
But instead of sticking to his agreement not to contact the terrified victim, just two weeks later he sent flowers and a card to her Mickleover address.
The 38-year-old, of Draycott, had all 18 weeks of his suspended sentence activated as well as eight more weeks for breaching the order.
Magistrates in Derby told him: “The offence is so serious because you have a blatant disregard for court orders.
“The new offences were against the same victim within a short period of the restraining order being imposed. It was a deliberate breach, the victim is living in fear.”
At his original hearing in March, Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court heard how Jackson hid behind a sofa and climbed on top of an extension roof while checking up on the victim during a course of harassment. He also posted a photograph of a noose on social media and turned up in her garden leaving her “paranoid”.
Katie Hamill, prosecuting at that hearing, said the defendant and his wife have been together for 15 years and have two children together.
She said there were no problems in the relationship until August 2018 when Jackson left the house for three days without warning and when he returned “began to act differently”.
Miss Hamill said: “She said she began to live a more social life and he did not like this.
“On one occasion he hid behind a sofa and on another he climbed on to the top of an extension. She did retract a police statement but he was convicted of stalking.” Miss Hamill said after that court appearance the couple got back together but they split again.
She said between September 2019 and the summer of last year he continued to try to control matters. Miss Hamill said: “Between July 16 and 17 last year she had 50 calls from a withheld number which she knows was from him as he left abusive messages demanded she unblocked him.
“He demanded to know where she was and who she had been with.
“Another day she had another 50 missed calls and more abusive messages.
“He then started putting messages and images on Facebook including one of a noose and the words ‘attention seeking.’
Miss Hamill said: “The victim told police she just wants it to stop and that she feels paranoid he is in her garden or that she will walk in and find him behind a sofa.”
Jackson, of Victoria Mills, Town End Road, pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching a restraining order and admitted his latest offences saw him breach his suspended sentence order. As well as being jailed, he was ordered to pay a £128 victim surcharge.
It was a deliberate breach, the victim is living in fear.
Magistrates