Nicola Roberts’ ex-boyfriend ‘breached restraining order’

Nicola Roberts’ ex-boyfriend, who threatened to burn and stab the Girls Aloud star in a five-year cyberstalking campaign, allegedly breached his restraining order by looking at her Instagram page.

Former soldier Carl Davies threatened to stab and burn the girl band star after setting up 35 fake social media accounts.

He used them to send thousands of Twitter and Instagram messages.

Knife and fire emojis were pictured on the most disturbing messages compared to the other more affectionate tweets where the Afghanistan veteran declared his love to the flame-haired singer. Ms Roberts never replied to any of the messages.

Instead she meticulously copied every vile missive until after five years the target changed to her friend, R n’ B singer Joel Compass, which prompted the 31-year-old to contact the police.

On May 5, this year, he was given a life-time restraining order not to contact the singer, Mr Compass, or go within 250 metres of the pair or her family.

However, the 40-year-old appeared again at Guildford Crown Court yesterday and was told he would stand trial next year after being accused of viewing the star’s Instagram page.

He did not enter a plea and was released on bail with the conditions that he live and sleep at his home address and Judge Jonathan Black added: ‘Secondly you are not to access any of the social media accounts of Nicola Roberts.’

Davies had been the star’s boyfriend at the heights of the Girls Aloud fame but the pair parted company in 2008. 

It was reported at the time they were engaged during the 18-month relationship but public rows, including one at G-A-Y just before she performed with her bandmates, led to the then 22-year-old calling time on their relationship. 

Davies, from Flint in North Wales, was due to stand trial for two to three days at Guildford Crown Court from April 30 next year.

Davies had admitted one count of stalking and another count of persistent use of public communication network to cause annoyance or inconvenience from 2012, and was handed a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

Judge Jonathan Black said at the sentencing in May: ‘For a period up to 2008 you were in a relationship with Nicola Roberts, the singer-songwriter, but that came to an end in 2008.

Nicola says she can’t feel safe in her own home knowing what Carl was capable of 

‘From the date the crown says was in 2012, you say was in 2014, but for the purpose of this sentencing makes little difference, you sent 3,000 messages to her through the use of around 35 fake social media accounts.

‘Some of those messages were loving, wanting to be with her, some messages with little meaning but other messages threatening serious violence, mentioning knives and burning.’

He added: ‘One of the questions Ms Robert’s asked at her police interview and I think there’s many people in this courtroom today wondering the same thing, is ‘Why does he think we’re still in a relationship?”

Lee Harris, prosecuting, told a court how Davies used a total of 35 fake accounts to bombard his ex-lover over Twitter and then Instagram from 2012 up until earlier this year.

He said: ‘The victim in this case is Nicola Roberts, currently a singer in the band Girls Aloud 

When Carl sent her flowers Nicola tried to find out who had sent he mysterious package 

‘She was in a relationship with Mr Davies in 2008. The relationship ended acrimoniously.

‘She says that since then Mr Davies has been sending messages to her. There was a stack of 3,000 in total.

‘The messages ranged from loving – ‘I love you’, ‘I want to be with you’ type of messages – to violent and threatening types of messages.

‘There’s the use of knife emojis, threats of burning, and a lot of messages somewhere in between. Ms Roberts took screenshots of each of these messages whenever they came and sent them to the police in due course.

Roberts finally contacted police when Daives started sending messages to her friend 

‘What caused her to, in the end, contact the police, was contact she had with her friend Joel Compass. He started getting messages at the end of October last year.’

Among the messages sent to Mr Compass – a musician who has worked with Ms Roberts in the past – were ‘call me now’ and ‘I hope you appreciate your girlfriend while it lasts’, which was sent with dagger and knife emojis.

Another of the 36 messages the 39-year-old sent to the R&B and soul singer read: ‘I’ll burn you once I finish with your face and body.’

‘She also complained, through her manager, of receiving bouquets of flowers,’ added Mr Harris. The flowers were always sent to her manager’s office and although she never took the flora, she took photographs of every single card that accompanied them.

Ms Roberts realised that Davies just ‘wasn’t going to go away’ 

In October last year she contacted one of the companies that delivered the flowers, to try and find out who had sent the mysterious package.

Mr Harris explained: ‘Strangely they said the order had been made by Ms Roberts, to be delivered by Ms Roberts.’

He added: ‘It was at that point that Ms Roberts realised that he wasn’t just going to go away. He wasn’t just going to get bored, as it were, and forget it. It was then that she realised she needed to contact the police.’

Monica Stevenson, defending, told Guildford Crown Court that Davies had suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) since leaving the army and later jobs in private security had not helped his mental condition.

‘It’s accepted, on behalf of Mr Davies, that his conduct, which he has pleaded guilty to, inadvertently caused serious harm and upset to both the victims in this case,’ she said. ‘He conveys, through me, his disgust for his conduct.’

Davies dated Roberts (pictured far right) at the height of Girl’s Aloud fame  

She continued: ‘As Ms Roberts acknowledges she received these messages but didn’t at any stage contact Mr Davies in any way, least of all to say something like ‘Stop sending these messages’.

‘Very often in cases of stalking the offender is given a warning, often by the complainant but often by other agencies such as the police. What we know is that there was no such warning in this case.’

Judge Black added: ‘A probation report shows you suffer from PTSD which goes back to your service in the army, especially in Afghanistan, and some of the issues and things you must have seen in Afghanistan. It’s clear from your army records that you were a well thought-of member of the armed forces.

‘Now that the PTSD has been diagnosed you will be aware of what caused you to act in this way and you will be able to properly respond to those issues..’