A COCKERMOUTH man who flouted court orders designed to stop him having any contact with two former partners has been given a four-month curfew.

Carlisle Crown Court heard how Andrew Joseph McClements, 55, had previously been in a 12-year “abusive and violent” relationship with one of the women and – despite a court’s restraining order which was imposed in 2013 – he got in touch with her.

In November last year, the woman’s new partner died and McClements contacted her. But after she moved in with her daughter, he began sending her text messages.

Despite her asking him to cease contact, McClements, of Green’s Yard, Derwent Street, Cockermouth, sent her a message saying his time was up, making reference to dying. The message breached his restraining order.

The court was told also of how the defendant tried to rekindle another former relationship, this time with a woman he was last year convicted of stalking.

She too was given a court’s protection in the form of a restraining order which prohibited any contact between McClements and her. But in the early hours of April 2, he sent her a text message, saying that he had lost his son and that he needed help.

He later denied contacting her and as police were investigating the allegation he again contacted her, this time by approaching her outside her place of work – something he was again expressly forbidden from doing. He accused her of not caring about his bereavement.

In a statement, the woman, formerly in a four-year relationship with McClements, spoke of feeling “extremely scared”. “Their relationship ended in January 2019 and he was convicted of stalking her in December of that year,” said prosecutor Charles Brown. “She describes his actions [in April] as bringing it all back and making her frightened to go out.”

She had been left afraid to leave her own home, said Mr Brown.

Marion Weir, for McClements, who admitted both offences, said he turned to alcohol after the death of his son.

The court heard also that he began drinking heavily after the death of his son and he had lost his own father at a young age, while his mother had left when he was just 10 to live with a new partner.

Recorder Tom Gilbart described the defendant’s record for breaching orders as “appalling,” and his thinking about relationships as “entrenched” and “disturbed”.

He imposed a 30 month community order, with a four-month curfew, and an order to complete a building better relationships programme. The order protecting the woman he confronted outside her workplace was made indefinite.Recorder Gilbart told the defendant he could have no complaint whatsoever if he had been jailed for what had been “shameful offences.”

The judge told McClements: “These people were entitled to end their relationship with you. You didn’t have to the right to maintain it as you wished. It should not need a court order to tell you that.

“The message doesn’t seem to have got through to you - even after being arrested by the police... Being arrested didn’t deter you.”