Repeat offender faces jail sentence following harassment campaign

POTATO SHOVED IN CAR EXHAUST AND TAUNTS HURLED AT WOMAN

A MAN’s campaign of harassment against a former partner culminated in him threatening her and placing a potato in her car’s exhaust pipe - an act described by a judge as highly dangerous.

Mark Bradshaw, 38, also stood outside the woman’s flat and shouted abuse at her.

His history of abusive behaviour had forced her to seek a three-year restraining order in January last year, a court heard.

The order contained just one prohibition - that he was not to contact her in any way.

Despite having been jailed twice already, Bradshaw, of School Street, Syston, appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court last week to plead guilty to breaking the order for a fourth time.

His case has now been sent to crown court for sentencing.

Prosecutor Kwok Wan said the woman, who lives near to Bradshaw and is physically disabled, was the latest person to seek legal protection from him, and that he has ignored those previous injunctions too.

Bradshaw, who blamed alcohol dependency for his behaviour, had only just come out of prison when he began to target the woman again, the court heard.

On the evening of Monday, May 18 he stood outside her flat and shouted abuse at her, including the references to her weight.

A day later, a CCTV camera recorded him sneaking out of his flat and, thinking nobody was looking, stuffing the potato into her car’s exhaust pipe.

Earlier that day, Mr Wan said, the defendant had left four threatening messages on her phone, including one in which he said he would damage her car.

Mr Wan said that after police showed him the footage, Bradshaw said “he’d been daft and did not know why he had done it”.

About the comments over her weight he confessed he “might have been drunk at the time”.

Mr Wan continued: “This is the fourth time this defendant has breached this restraining order.

“There is a history of similar behaviour. There have been other restraining orders, which do not relate to this victim, which have been breached.

“His record shows that he does not comply with restraining orders.”

The court heard that Bradshaw was arrested in the woman’s flat in June last year.

Kerry Patrick, defending, told the court the woman and Bradshaw “gravitated” toward each other and drank together.

He has previously rejected offers of help from drug and alcohol treatment charity Turning Point, but was now willing to accept its support.

She said: “He fully admits these offences and that alcohol is a trigger for him. Due to their proximity, they gravitate towards each other when they are drinking

“On this occasion he had been drinking and thought it would be funny, a prank, to put the potato in the exhaust pipe.

“He admits making threats over the phone but had no intention of carrying them out.

“He is aware of the restraining order and knows that breaching it means he is going to prison.

“It’s clear their relationship, friendship or whatever it was is is not healthy for either of them,

“He accepts the best thing for him would be to move. It’s a council flat and he can’t move because there are arrears on his rent.

“He says there is something along the lines of £2,000 outstanding which, for someone on benefits, is going to take a long time to clear.

“We have asked if there is family or a friend he can stay with, and unfortunately there is nobody.

“Although he thought he could deal with the alcohol himself, he is now of the opinion he can’t and would like assistance. He does not drink daily, he binges - and that is when he gets into trouble.

“He would like to engage with Turning Point, albeit he has had that opportunity in the past.”

Bradshaw pleaded guilty to three breaches of the order.

District Judge Nick Watson rejected Bradshaw’s explanation that the woman was partly to blame for their contact with each other.

He said: “I am not convinced she is complicit in this breach. It seems to me she is trying to stay away from you. You threatened her and you threatened to damage her car. You put a potato in the exhaust pipe and that is very dangerous.

“Given you have such a bad record and the crown court has more powers than I do, you will be sentenced in the crown court.”

Bradshaw was remanded in custody and is due to appear at Leicester Crown Court on July 1.