A MAN has received prison sentences for breaking a stalking protection order within weeks of it being imposed.

Joseph Bissell, 25, was made subject to the order at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on August 5.

The defendant, whose address was given as Avonvale Road, Redfield, Bristol, breached this by contacting two women in Bournemouth between August 15 and August 23.

Bissell pleaded guilty to two counts of breach of a stalking order and commission of a further offence while subject to a conditional discharge made for offences of assaulting emergency workers at a Poole Magistrates’ Court hearing on August 27.

The offender was not present at the same court when he was sentenced to 30 weeks’ imprisonment along with an order to pay £187 surcharge.

Stalking protection orders are civil orders which have been available to the courts since 2019. They can include a range of prohibitions and requirements and if these are broken the subject of the order can be prosecuted for any breaches.