A MAN who previously told his ex-partner he ‘knew where he would bury her’ breached a court order by attempting to speak to her.  

Lawrence Cockburn, 36, is subject to a non-molestation order with conditions not to have contact with the woman.

But on April 1 he pulled up in a vehicle alongside her while she was out walking in Aspatria and said he wanted to talk to her, Workington Magistrates’ Court heard.

Pamela Fee, prosecuting, said the victim carried on walking, telling Cockburn that he wasn’t meant to talk to her. He then asked her, ‘was it all worth it?’

She told him she ‘didn’t care’ and to ‘go away’. She reached in her pocket for her phone and Cockburn then ‘shot off down the road’.

He then came racing back down the road, ‘driving aggressively’. The incident was reported to the police.

The victim said she felt ‘scared’ and feared Cockburn was never going to leave her alone. She said Cockburn clearly didn’t want to abide by the order.

She said in the past, Cockburn had said horrible things to her, telling her, ‘I know where I would bury you’.

The woman said that Cockburn had taken the matter back to court in April and had asked for the non-molestation order to be removed. She said she didn’t understand why he wanted it to be removed.

During police interview, Cockburn gave a statement that said he ‘hadn’t done anything wrong’.

The defendant, who was not legally represented, said he agreed with the case put forward by the prosecution and had nothing else to say.

Cockburn, of Beech Hill, Oughterside, Wigton, admitted breaching a non-molestation order.

Passing sentence, Stephen Fairclough, chair of the magistrates panel, said: “Breach of a non-molestation order is a very serious offence.

“It’s one of the highest forms of protection you can give a person.”

Cockburn was given a 12-month community order with 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days and 60 hours of unpaid work.

He was ordered to pay £85 costs and a £114 victim surcharge.