A WOMAN has been given a restraining order after she harassed her ex-partner through a series of messages and phone calls.

Lisa Amanda Whalley appeared before magistrates after she was charged with sending abusive texts and voicemails to Paul Greer over the course of five weeks.

South Cumbria Magistrates’ Court was told the couple had been in a relationship 10 years ago and had not any contact until the messages started.

Magistrates heard the 46-year-old defendant was told repeatedly by the man to stop contacting him and she sent a number of abusive messages.

The defendant said: “I hope you die a slow death.” She also texted him: “You haven’t heard the last of me.”

In a victim impact statement read out in court, the man said he was ‘extremely upset and disgusted’ by her behaviour towards him.

The ‘stress and anxiety’ had caused him to have a number of sleepless nights.

He said his job involved him operating heavy machinery and he was anxious the stress might affect his concentration at work.

Defence solicitor Liz Phizacklea told the court: “The defendant and the victim were in a relationship for four weeks and it was a troubled one.”

She said Whalley had recently had a nervous breakdown and ‘as a result of this she lashed out’.

Magistrates banned the defendant, of Beech Street in Barrow, from contact with the victim for the next two years. She was also given a 10 week curfew requiring her to stay at home between 7pm and 7am. She was told to pay a £90 victim surcharge and £85 costs.