A former serviceman who subjected his ex-partner to five years of hell has admitted breaching a restraining order.

Mark Blamire, 28, of Dent Place, Cleator Moor, pleaded guilty to harassing Lynn Kyles by making prohibited contact on October 1.

West Cumbria Magistrates' Court heard Blamire entered his ex-partner’s home in Whitehaven where he started drinking beer and taking pills.

Pamela Fee, prosecuting, said: “The complainant has a restraining order against the defendant, and she said he has made her life hell for five years.

"On the day of the offence, she heard tapping on the back window and the defendant let himself in through the back door.

"He started drinking a Budweiser and took pills, which she thought were downers.”

Appearing before magistrates, Blamire also admitted stealing £1,167 of food and cooking equipment from Grove Court Hotel on September 23, and to a charge of possessing diazepam on October 1.

Mrs Fee said Blamire was arrested in Whitehaven on the same day that he breached his restraining order.

After his arrest, the court heard, police then discovered 50 diazepam pills in his underwear.

She told magistrates that, on September 23, Blamire entered the Grove Court Hotel through the back door multiple times to take various food items, a boiler and knives.

Ian Nancollis, defending, said his client was “homeless and hungry” at the time of the incidents and was in a “vicious circle” of drug taking and mental health issues.

Blamire is due to be sentenced on October 28 at the west Cumbrian court, sitting in Workington.