A man has been jailed after he bombarded the mother of his children with more than 190 threatening phone calls in a week.

Nicholas Smith, 29, of Smallwood Road, Colchester, was sent to prison for four months and given a restraining order to stay away from his former partner when he appeared at Colchester Magistrates' Court on Friday

The court heard that Smith's partner, Sadie Weeding, decided the pair, who have two children together, should separate in September 2003, but Smith still wanted to rekindle the relationship.

Suzi Lince, prosecuting, said he became abusive when dropping off the children after taking them out one Saturday in October and tried to drag her to the car, grabbing her around the throat.

Smith then had no contact with her until he started making threatening phone calls, which, Ms Lince said, left Miss Weeding "a nervous wreck", fearing he would carry out his threats.

He admitted to making in excess of 190 calls between November 30 and December 7, and also sending text messages.

Paul Tawn, mitigating, said: "In interview, he was asking to be locked up for a very long time."

He added: "He did not mean to harm her, just make her feel as badly as he had done."

Published Monday January 12, 2004

Brought to you by the Evening Gazette