A 'VIOLENT' boyfriend banned from seeing his partner was found hiding in her bedroom cupboard within hours of the court order being imposed.

Just hours before police found him at the woman’s Boundary Road home in Carlisle, Benjamin Davies Bland, 39, failed to persuade magistrates that the order was not necessary for the woman’s protection.

She had even testified in court against the making of the order.

But at 10.05pm on Tuesday, the day of that hearing, police searched the woman’s home and found the defendant hiding in an upstairs cupboard, the city’s Rickergate court heard. Bland was jailed for two weeks.

It was even suggested that the couple had walked away from the city's Rickergate court together straight after the order was approved.

Lawyer Tom Young, representing Cumbria Police, said the court imposed the 28-day domestic violence protection order (DVPO) because magistrates judged Bland's girlfriend was a victim of his violence.

The application was made after police received a call on April 9 from a relative of the woman reporting that Bland had assaulted her.

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Police arrived to find Bland “highly intoxicated”. The argument had culminated with him grabbing her hair and pulling out some of her hair extensions, the court heard.

As he contested the original police application, Bland denied that, saying he pulled the hair extensions out of a bowl.

The purpose of a DVPO, said Mr Young, was to provide respite to the woman so she could seek support without being influenced by Bland, though in court she opposed the order. 

Outlining what happened after the order was made on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Young said: “Police officers attended [the woman’s address] at 10pm to conduct a welfare check, given that the DVPO had just been imposed to protect her.

“They asked if they could check the address to make sure he wasn’t there and when [an officer] searched the master bedroom he found Mr Bland hiding in a cupboard.”

There was an “extensive history” which included previous instances of Bland being violent towards the woman, said Mr Young.

“She is highly vulnerable and suffers from various health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, sustained as a result of suffering violence at the hands of a previous partner.”

The lawyer added: “Mr Bland is a dangerous individual, with several previous convictions for violence, some involving violence of the most serious kind. There is a history of violence towards previous partners.

“He tends to quickly resort to violence when displeased.”

John Smith, for Bland, said the defendant was formally diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Both he and his girlfriend were willing to attend counselling and take relationship advice.

Bland could not understand why the police suggested they go together for that counselling and then applied to ban him from seeing her.

Referring to the breach of the order, which Bland admitted, Mr Smith said the defendant left court without a written copy of the DVPO and had mistakenly believed he was under an obligation to stay at the Boundary Road address where he was found.

The order in fact ordered that he leave that house.

Mr Smith added: “She was not saying to the police ‘Please help me; he’s here.’ This is not a case which involved violence or injury. He helps her with her mental health and she helps him with his mental health.

“What’s happened is that the authorities have intervened in a private domestic relationship.”

Magistrates pointed said Bland had received past DVPOs, though he did have a recognised mental health condition and difficulty in understanding court orders. They accepted the breach was minor.

But the circumstances, they said, suggested that Bland had no intention of abiding by the order so they felt they had no alternative but to jail him for 14 days. 

They warned Bland that the order will be in place for a further two weeks when he is released.

As he was led away, Bland – who works as a chef – said he was the victim of a "miscarriage of justice" and then turned to his girlfriend, who sat at the back of the court, and said: “Two weeks – sound. It’s detox and I’ll come out better.”

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