A MAN has been jailed after he wrote about his former partner on Facebook.
Cyril Richard Roberts, 47, admitted that what he wrote on his own Facebook wall – together with a telephone call to his former partner's number – amounted to his third breach of a restraining order.
Roberts, of Y Wern, Caia Park, Wrexham, was jailed for two months by District Judge Andrew Shaw, who said he had been guilty of a fundamental breach of the order to have no contact with her.
He had been remanded in custody in November and had then received a community order for a previous breach.
Only an immediate custodial sentence was now appropriate, he said.
Prosecutor Matthew Ellis told Flintshire Magistrates Court at Mold how a restraining order under The Protection from Harassment Act had been made in May of last year and it was amended last month so that he was prohibited from making any reference to former partner on Facebook or any other social media.
This was now his third breach of the order, he said. He was not to approach her or her home. But on December 16 he telephoned her home from a public kiosk.
Fortunately she did not answer, it was answered by another person.
But his former partner had been very upset, had suffered a panic attack thinking that he was in the area. She was petrified of bumping into him.
Also on that day Roberts mentioned her on his Facebook wall.
Alun Williams, defending, said Roberts had been placed on a community order and sent on a thinking skills programme but that had not yet had time to kick in.
That day he had been at a Christmas event with former work colleagues and family and it was alleged there had been an incident between him and a member of his former partner’s family, which was now being investigated by the police.
Roberts had not mentioned that to anyone else that night to prevent matters escalating, but returned home upset because the night had been ruined.
Unfortunately the next day he did mention her on Facebook which was a breach of the order.
He had telephoned the house but did not to speak to her and it was his case that if she answered then he would have put the phone down.
Roberts was to a great extent getting his life back on track, his job had been held open for him previously, and if he received a suspended sentence now then the job would still be available to him.
Roberts accepted the relationship between him and his former partner was over.