A MAN who left a Welshpool woman and her daughter scared for their safety was told only his early guilty plea saved him from jail.
Andrew Cooke, 46, was sentenced for breaching a non-molestation order at Welshpool Magistrates Court on Tuesday, October 29, three weeks after he first pleaded guilty.
Chairman of the bench, Dr Rachael Jones, heard from prosecutor Helen Tench that on September 21 this year, Cooke entered his victim’s property to speak to her after the end of an on-and-off relationship.
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The victim, who said Cooke had never been given a key to her property, heard her daughter shouting that she was scared as she could hear the defendant shouting from downstairs.
The woman spoke to him for a number of hours where he repeatedly asked to stay, despite already breaking the non-molestation order which was issued by Wrexham Family Court in July.
Cooke also demanded that his victim show him her messages and calls while he also tried to make himself a cup of tea.
In a victim impact statement, read out by Mrs Tench, the victim said she was devastated by his actions.
She said: "He made me scared in my own house and considered moving to a refuge and thought that I wanted to move".
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She added that she felt "unsafe because of the order ending in July and he said that he will speak to me in July next year".
In mitigation, Gurleen Kaur, defending, told the court that her client had been suffering with his mental health when he decided to travel to the property.
Miss Kaur also opposed an application for a restraining order and asked for her client’s curfew tag to be placed by GPS monitoring to allow him to travel the country for work.
Sentencing him, Dr Jones said: “This is very serious and you could’ve found yourself going to prison.
“We were going to do that but because of your early guilty plea, we brought it down to the probation’s recommendation of a 12-month community order with 15 rehabilitation days and the GPS tag.
“We do agree with the restraining order, made for two years, and you are not to go within 100 metres of the address.
“You are not allowed to input their details into any electronic equipment or social media.”
The bench also ruled that comments made in mitigation were derogatory to the victim and could not be reported.
Cooke, of Cleobury Mortimer, was also ordered to pay £85 in costs and a £114 victim surcharge.
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