MAGISTRATES have approved a domestic violence protection order which bans a 39-year-old man from contacting a Carlisle woman.

Stuart Barwise, of no fixed abode, was not present at Carlisle’s Rickergate court when the Cumbria Police application for the domestic violence protection order (DVPO) was approved.

It will remain in force for 28 days.

It forbids any contact with a named woman for the duration of the order. Nor can Barwise go to within 100 metres of the woman’s home at Stanhope Road, Carlisle, while the order is in force.

Such orders can be approved when magistrates are persuaded, on the balance of probabilities, that the protected party has been the victim of violence of threatened with violence.

The court must also be satisfied that the order is necessary and proportionate. The intention is to provide both parties involved with “breathing space” so that the alleged victim can seek support.

The order is civil in nature but breaching the terms of a DVPO is a criminal offence