Chef bombarded ex with 130 calls on the same day
suspended sentence, were dished out at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on Monday, January 6, after Burney admitted a charge of causing criminal damage.
At his latest hearing at the same court, magistrates had the option to jail him due his messages offence putting him inbreachofthesuspendedsentence.
However, they accepted there had been no further incidents for five months – and instead ordered him to carry out extra unpaid work.
Prosecutor Lesley Burgess said: “His former partner describes a 10-year relationship with the defendant and two children together.
“The restraining order didn’t prevent contact wholly, it allowed contact for the sole purpose of childcare.
“Anumberofdaysafterthis is put in place, she spoke to the defendant, who was making a request for her to bring the children to him one-by-one.
“She said that this was excessive, and she wouldn’t take them one-by-one. He became abusive, and said, ‘You better call the police, I’m coming for the kids’.
“There were 130 calls made to her by the defendant. He also contacted her via Facebook Messenger 200 times in the space of an hour-and-a-half.
“The contact simply wasn’t to do with the children, therefore it was in breach of the order.”
Neil Hodgson, defending, saidBurneyhadbeenmaderedundantaroundthetimeofthe offencesandhad“losttheplot”.
But he said his client was starting work next week and now had a good relationship with the woman.
Burney was given 40 hours’ unpaid work for the admitted restraining order breach and the same sentence, to run consecutive,forbreachingthesuspended sentence.
He must pay a £95 victim surcharge.