Published at 16:39, Tuesday, 04 December 2012

A MAN barred by a court order from contacting his ex-partner rang her the same day he was released from jail.

Edward Marshall also visited her home and spoke to her, on one occasion shouting through the letterbox when he was ignored.

He was given 10 months’ jail by a judge who said he was a “convicted harasser” and also told him: “You don’t appear to have learned very much from the fact you have been sentenced on earlier occasions.”

Marshall, 43, of Stackwood Avenue, Barrow, had pleaded guilty to two offences of breaching a restraining order. He had been ordered not to approach his former partner Joanne Young and also not to go within 200 metres of her home in Barrow.

The order had been imposed in May.

Mr Mark Lamberty, prosecuting at Preston Crown Court, said the defendant had been in a relationship with Miss Young for around four months.

There came a time when he was given 120 days in prison, of which he served half. Marshall was released on July 12 and that same day Miss Young got a call from him, though it was not an abusive call.

She did not report the matter to police. There were a number of occasions when Marshall spoke to her on the phone.

She was also visited by Marshall and on one occasion the defendant shouted through the letterbox when she ignored him. Contact with her continued for about a month.

On August 7, someone else was also in the house when the defendant rang. Miss Young was urged to report the call and she did. She spoke of Marshall having visited on one occasion and punching a bathroom wall.

He had previous convictions for harassment, but these had not related to her.

Mr Richard Bennett, defending, said the relationship had come to an end.

Mr Bennett said: “He accepts that. He has no intention of attempting to contact her again. He assures me there will be no repetition.”

Mr Bennett also said it seemed clear that Miss Young had allowed Marshall back into her home on occasions. A number of witnesses would have been able to say she was communicating with him.

The offences involved contact and there had not been any violence.

Judge Stuart Baker also told Marshall as he handed down the jail term: “There comes a time when the court must impose a sentence which will impress on the offender that if he continues to offend, he can expect longer and longer punishments in the future, otherwise the sentence will have no deterrent effect at all.”

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