A Ballymena man who used multiple phone numbers to stalk and intimidate his ex-partner has been ordered a serve a year in jail.
Jailing Gary Mairs (48) at Antrim Crown Court, Judge Alistair Devlin told him he will serve a further year on licence and will also be subject to a three year restraining order in an effort to protect his victim who has been left psychologically scarred.
In addition to the sentence for offences against his ex, Mairs will serve a further four months in custody as by contacting her, he breached a previously suspended sentence.
The judge said that breach and Mairs’ overall behaviour, including contacting the woman within hours of being freed from custody, “shows not only a settled and conscious determination and total disregard to orders of the court but also a complete contempt for this court’s authority”.
At an earlier hearing Mairs, from Andena Grange in Ballymena, entered guilty pleas to offences of stalking, witness intimidation and breach of a restraining order, all committed between September 20 and November 23 last year and all aggravated by reason of domestic abuse.
Mairs contacted his victim “multiple times,” sent her a message via a third party to “ask her to drop charges against him” and also that he “engaged in a course of conduct that amounted to stalking.
In court on Tuesday, Judge Devlin outlined how the victim contacted police around this time a year ago to supply them with screen shots of a message Mairs had sent to her friend, asking her to “drop the charges”.
“The defendant had also said that he wished to speak to her as he claimed to have been diagnosed with a form of cancer,” said the judge.
She told police that since Mairs was freed from prison on September 21 last year, he had been “repeatedly trying to make contact with her”.
Over that period of time he had used no fewer than four different mobile numbers to call and send messages through text and different social media platforms.
The court heard Mairs sent her multiple messages repeatedly asking if she had gone to the police and others declaring that “I’m going to fight for you until I die”.
Commenting that the most serious offence was the charge of stalking, Judge Devlin said that was because it “causes fear of violence and distress” for victims.