A man has been jailed for helping his mum look after her four grandchildren while his sister was on holiday.

Blackburn Magistrates' Court heard Robert Norris was banned from attending his mother’s home by a restraining order.

When police attended her address they found him in the kitchen cooking pasta for his nieces and nephews.

Norris, 42, of Marsden Hall Road, Nelson, pleaded guilty to breach of a restraining order imposed in March 2023.

He was jailed for eight weeks.

Zoe Bagnall, prosecuting, said the restraining order had been put in place for 12 months following a conviction for assaulting his mother.

She said Norris contacted his probation officer using his mum’s mobile phone and that was reported to the police.

“Officers went to do a welfare check on his mum and found the defendant in the kitchen at her home,” said Miss Bagnall.

“His mother told the police she no longer wanted the restraining order.”

Mark Williams, mitigating, said the defendant’s sister had gone away on holiday to New York and asked their mother to look after the four children.

“His mother was struggling and she contacted him and asked if he would help,” said Mr Williams.

“On this day he picked one of the children up from school and if he had dropped them off at the door would not have been in breach of the order.

“His mum asked him in and asked him to make tea for them all. When the police arrived that was what he was doing, cooking pasta for the children’s tea.”

Jailing him, the chair of the magistrates said the offence had been committed six weeks after a previous breach, adding; “You have a history of failing to adhere to court orders and in our view this has crossed the custody threshold.”