A SUSPENDED 70-day jail term has been imposed on a Carlisle man after he admitted flouting a court restraining order.

Alexander Harkness, 20, of Priory Road, Carlisle, is the subject of a court order imposed in March which was meant to stop him from contacting his ex-partner.

But at the city’s Rickergate Magistrates’ Court, he pleaded guilty to breaching that order on April 2. He did this by sending her a text message indirectly via a third party, court papers show.

Magistrates suspended the 70-day prison term for a year, noting there had been no threats made by the defendant in his message. But they ordered that he must complete 70 days of rehabilitation, supervised by the Probation Service.

Harkness must also pay £85 costs and a £128 victim surcharge.