THE day after he appeared in court for breaching a restraining order a 40-year-old man repeated the offence.

Blackburn magistrates heard David Richard Hargreaves turned up at his former partner's address despite being on bail from the previous day's court appearance.

Hargreaves, 40, of Delph Close, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to two charges of breaching a restraining order in favour of Katrina Lawrence and damaging a door belonging to his mother.

He was jailed for 18 weeks after the magistrates said he had shown a blatant disregard for the order of the court.

Catherine Allan, prosecuting, said Hargreaves had turned up at his ex-partner's home banging on the door and shouting. He demanded that she speak to him through the letter box and threatened to smash her windows.

When he eventually left, Miss Lawrence rang his mother and warned her she thought he was on his way to her house.

"When he got there she refused to let him in and he damaged the door," said Miss Allan. "He appeared in court for those offences on Saturday and in the early hours of Sunday was back at Miss Lawrence's home. He again demanded to speak to her and said he wasn't leaving until she did She was scared to look out of the window and called the police."

Ian Huggan, defending, said his client's problems had started in 1995 when he was 18-years-old and saw his brother killed in a tragic accident. They were playing football in the park when the goalposts collapsed and hit his brother on the head.

"He witnessed that and struggled to cope with what had happened," said Mr Huggan. "He started to drink too much to try and deal with what had happened and within six months he had lost his job. Things have been on a downward spiral since then."

Mr Huggan said there had been issues with drugs but in the main his client's problem had been drink.