Woman forced to give up her Hartlepool home due to harassment from ex

Gareth Hunt, 40, could not accept the relationship was over and repeatedly broke a restraining order by turning up at the woman’s house in Hartlepool while in drink being aggressive and shouting.

He also threatened to firebomb her mother’s home and on one occasion Hunt slapped his ex-partner in the face.

He was jailed for 26 months by Teesside Crown Court and is the second time he has been locked up for assaulting the woman.

In February 2018, he was jailed for 20 months for wounding and criminal damage and was slapped with a restraining order.

But he ignored it by going to her house multiple times, including in the middle of the night, between August 11 and 16 this year.

One one night, the victim woke to the sound of Hunt banging on the door at 1am and again at 3am.

He said to her: “Watch your mam’s house in 20 minutes it’s getting petrol bombed.”

Hunt also threw a glass bottle at the woman’s window.

In a victim personal statement she said: “As a result of these incidents I have suffered stress and worry.

"It has led me to not want to be left on my own. Due to this I have given up my house to move in with my mum.

"The harassment that Hunt has subjected me to has resulted in me struggling to sleep, feeling worried and utterly sick. I just don’t know what he’s going to do next.

"I just want him to leave me alone.”

Hunt, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and breach of a restraining order.

He has 27 convictions on his record.

Paul Cleasby, defending, said in mitigation: "He makes no excuses for what he’s done.

“He accepts he was out of order and shouldn’t have behaved in the way did.”

Judge Jonathan Carroll said it was a familiar story of a man “determined to use his greater physical strength and force to bully, intimidate and dominate an ex-partner for his own ends.”

He extended the restraining order for another 10 years.

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