A MAN who breached a restraining order by contacting his ex-girlfriend through a reverse call service has been jailed.

Craig David Brock received a suspended sentence and a restraining order back in May after he assault her and made vile threats in a six-week period of harassment.

Within weeks he breached the court order and was back before Bournemouth Crown Court, via video link, to be sentenced on Friday, July 8.

Recorder Paul Garlick QC said only immediate custody was appropriate as he jailed the 31-year-old for nine months.

Prosecuting, Stuart Ellacott said: “The defendant was subject to a restraining order which prevented him from having contact with a woman who he had been in a relationship with.”

Mr Ellacott said this was issued following Brock’s convictions for assault and harassment when he received a sentence of eight months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, on May 9.

“On June 6, so about a month later, the victim says she was at her home address when she received a phone call from a withheld number,” the prosecutor said.

The court heard she discovered this was from a reverse call service called ‘0800 Mum and Dad’ and it included a voice message saying “guess who”.

She recognised the voice as that of the defendant. The victim received further calls from withheld numbers over a short period of time.

Police were called and Brock was interviewed three days later.

“He fully admitted breaching the order,” Mr Ellacott said.

The court heard he said on the day of the breach he had seen the victim in her car but there had been no other contact before leaving the messages.

Brock, of no fixed abode, previously pleaded guilty to breach of a restraining order and commission of a further offence while subject to a suspended sentence.

Emily Lanham, mitigating, said her client admitted to making the three calls through the ‘0800 Mum and Dad’ number.

Ms Lanham asked the judge to take the “unusual course” of a deferred sentence for the breach of the restraining order, saying that due to the short time between the order being imposed and the offence he had not been able to start his rehabilitation work with probation.

“He would have to in effect put his money where his mouth is,” Ms Lanham said.

The barrister told the court since his appearance in the dock in May and a report on this hearing in the Daily Echo, his father had kicked him out and blacklisted him from staying at the address as his son would bring his reputation down.

Ms Lanham said the defendant, who was using drugs at the time of the breach, had reflected on the harm caused by his actions and he had shown a positive attitude.

Recorder Garlick QC told the offender: “If when you are released you are in breach of this restraining order again, you will be going back to prison for a very long time.”