Chef bombarded ex with 130 calls and 200 Facebook messages just days after being given restraining order

Chef Duane Burney, 34, of Wordsworth Avenue West, Houghton, carried out the communications flurry after becoming upset at their new childcare arrangements.

His antics on Friday, January 10, came just four days after he had been ordered to stay away from her, other than for childcare, via a five-year restraining order, magistrates heard.

The order, and an eight-week suspended sentence, were dished out at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court on Monday, January 6, after Burney admitted a charge of causing criminal damage.

At his latest hearing at the same court, magistrates had the option to jail him due his messages offence putting him in breach of the suspended sentence.

However, they accepted there had been no further incidents for five months – and instead ordered him to carry out extra unpaid work.

Prosecutor Lesley Burgess said: “His former partner describes a 10-year relationship with the defendant and two children together.

“The restraining order didn’t prevent contact wholly, it allowed contact for the sole purpose of childcare.

“A number of days after this is put in place, she spoke to the defendant, who was making a request for her to bring the children to him one-by-one.

“She said that this was excessive, and she wouldn’t take them one-by-one. He became abusive, and said, ‘You better call the police, I’m coming for the kids’.

“There were 130 calls made to her by the defendant. He also contacted her via Facebook Messenger 200 times in the space of an hour-and-a-half.

“The contact simply wasn’t to do with the children, therefore it was in breach of the order.”

Neil Hodgson, defending, said Burney had been made redundant around the time of the offences and had “lost the plot”.

But he said his client was starting work next week and now had a good relationship with the woman.

Burney was given 40 hours’ unpaid work for the admitted restraining order breach and the same sentence, to run consecutive, for breaching the suspended sentence.

He must pay a £95 victim surcharge. There were no court costs.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world.

But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you.

How to subscribe to the print edition:

It’s easy to subscribe to your local newspaper. We have arranged a special 20 per cent off subscription offer for people to take advantage of.

Visit www.localsubsplus.co.uk, choose the newspaper title, the type of subscription and enter your details.