Jail for 'appalling abuse' carried out in breach of restraining order

Jack Trinder, 27, was said to have been in ‘constant contact’ with the mother of his three children after social services stopped working with the former couple in early-February.

Oxford Crown Court heard on Tuesday (March 28) that Trinder was in the woman’s Didcot home without her knowledge, leaving clothes by the washing machine, took bedding from the property so he could sleep in his car outside, and parked a car outside the house then made threats about what would happen if it was damaged.

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He was said to have peppered her with calls and ‘unpleasant’ messages for a couple of weeks before his arrest at the end of February.

All the contact was in breach of a restraining order initially made in 2021, the court was told.

The woman was ‘too scared’ to call the police herself and, in the end, it was her mother who called the authorities on February 27 to tell them that Trinder was at her daughter’s property.

He was arrested around a mile and a half away at a Tesco superstore.

Rehearsing the allegations against Trinder, Recorder Paul Reid said it was unsurprising that the victim was ‘reduced to a helpless and distressed state’, as she said in her statement.

Imposing 10 months’ imprisonment for the harassment and adding a further 12 months behind bars for an earlier offence of cannabis dealing, the judge said the man in the dock had perpetrated ‘appalling abuse’ on the mother of his children.

But he said it was to the defendant’s credit that he had abandoned a ‘totally spurious basis of plea’, put forward after he pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to breaching the restraining order.

“It’s clearly completely false and you have been sensible enough to abandon it as you really had to,” Recorder Reid said of the basis of plea, which was not read into the record.

“Had you not and had [the victim] had to attend court and been cross examined about this, the abuse would have continued thereby.”

READ MORE: Court report from Jack Trinder's cannabis sentencing last year

Mitigating, Emma Hornby said her client did not seek to cause any further distress to his ex-partner by ‘dragging’ the case through a ‘Newton’ hearing for a judge to establish the basis upon which Trinder should be sentenced.

He was ‘remorseful’ and sorry for his behaviour, she added. The defendant was ‘committed to complying with the court order so he can get his life back on track’.

A restraining order will limit Trinder, of Curbridge Road, Ducklington, from being able to contact his former partner.

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