A MAN who tried to call the mother of his child more than 40 times less than a month after receiving a restraining order for assaulting her on Christmas Day, has been jailed.

In February, Andrew Roche was convicted of punching his partner, Danielle Windle.

He was made subject of a two year restraining order and a community order which required him to complete a Building Better Relationships programme.

However, just four weeks after the restraining order was imposed, he breached the conditions by attempting to make contact with Miss Windle via a series of missed calls between March 10 and March 15.

He also sent her messages via Snapchat on February 24, just days after his sentencing; put her car up for sale on a Facebook; tried to hack into her email account and sent her father abusive messages.

At Preston Crown Court on Friday, Roche, 28, of Wood Street, Brierfield, was sentenced for breaching his restraining order as well as two counts of harassment.

Prosecuting, Cecilia Pritchard said: “The defendant was arrested on March 16, interviewed on March 17 but made no comment, and was brought before the magistrates on March 18 where he entered guilty pleas. He has 23 past convictions and consistently breached the restraining order over a number of days.”

In his defence, James Heyworth said this was the first time his client had been detained in custody, and he had not taken the imposition of a restraining order seriously at first, telling the court: “It’s perfectly clear to him now that court orders result in prison sentences if they are breached.”

Judge Heather Lloyd said: “You are well aware of what a court order means as previous records show there are a lot of breaches of orders in your past - so no-one could say you didn’t realise what breaching this order would mean.

“You have had 26 call outs for domestic unrest since 2012, with two previous partners, and that’s very worrying indeed.

“This is a case which only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”

Roche was sentenced to 12 months in prison with a further six to be served on licence upon his release.