Paul Blake, 36, left his former partner Rhian Blake feeling scared and isolated when he persistently harassed her after their three-year marriage broke down
A husband contacted his estranged wife more than 50 times a day, hacked into her online accounts, and used a location app to track her in a six-month campaign of domestic abuse.
Paul Blake, 36, left his former partner Rhian Blake feeling scared and isolated when he persistently harassed her after their three-year marriage broke down.
‘I just felt like there was no escape,’ she said in a statement read out at Cardiff Crown Court, where Blake was was given a 26-week jail term, suspended for 18 months.
Bethan Evans, prosecuting, said the offending happened over a six-month period between June and December last year.
The court heard the couple had been together for eight years when their relationship started to decline after the defendant started to abuse alcohol and cocaine.
Prosecutors said on July 12 he accessed her Google account to get a photo, which he used to set up a profile on Instagram and posed as her.
The court heard Blake contacted a man and tried to get him to admit he had had an affair with his wife.
Ms Evans said the defendant also set up social media accounts pretending to be other men and contacted the complainant to see if she would respond.
On August 20 she decided to go to Bristol ‘on the spur of the moment’ and said there was no way Blake could have known that.
The court heard he contacted her asking why she was in Bristol and who she was with.
The court heard the couple had been together for eight years when their relationship started to decline after the defendant started to abuse alcohol and cocaine (pictured on their wedding day in 2015)
Mrs Blake told the police she would have up to 10 calls and messages from her estranged husband on a ‘good day’ and more than 50 on a ‘bad day’.
Prosecutors said he contacted her 332 times in two weeks in December. The complainant went to the police on December 15 and received several calls from him while she was there, causing her to break down in tears.
He later sent her a message saying: ‘Hope the police station went well.’ He contacted her the next day to apologise and said he missed her. Blake was arrested and gave a prepared statement in which he denied stalking.
He answered ‘no comment’ to all the questions he was asked. In her statement Mrs Blake said: ‘He would be so controlling with me – constantly checking on my whereabouts and constantly questioning my every move.
‘He would phone me and text me to make me feel guilty for trying to have a life which did not involve him.’
She said it became ‘too much trouble’ to socialise and she wished she could just turn off her phone but she was too scared of what she would find when she turned it back on.
Prosecutors said he contacted her 332 times in two weeks in December. The complainant went to the police on December 15 and received several calls from him while she was there, causing her to break down in tears
The complainant added: ‘There was no point in trying to lead a normal life. I just felt like there was no escape.
‘I realise how much I have suffered at the hands of Paul and I just want to get on with my life.’ Blake, from Pembroke Grove in Newport, admitted stalking.
Ms Evans argued it was a persistent course of conduct over a long period, which caused distress to the victim. Susan Ferrier, defending, said her client had no previous convictions, just a caution in 2010 for possessing Class A drugs.
The court heard he had been in long-term relationships before and had no problems when they ended.
He was given a 26-week jail term, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete the Building Better Relationships programme. She also imposed a restraining order
Ms Ferrier said: ‘He was unable to cope with the breakdown of this marriage. He bitterly regrets it.’
Judge Eleri Rees told him: ‘Foran intelligent, educated, employed man to behave in this way, it does beggar belief.’
He was given a 26-week jail term, suspended for 18 months, and ordered to complete the Building Better Relationships programme.
She also imposed a restraining order.