Teenager stalked ex-girlfriend and sent her 'abusive' messages

Ethan George Wells, aged 18, was in a relationship with the victim for eight to nine months when she broke off the relationship ‘due to his arguments and behaviour’.

Prosecutor Richard Oakley told Weymouth Magistrates’ Court how ‘he didn’t take the breakup very well and became abusive and aggressive’ and began to send his ex-girlfriend abusive messages from September 11 onwards.

Among the messages, he told the victim ‘I’ll f****** hit you into next year’, ‘go cut your wrists and die’ and ‘I know where you f****** live and I will f****** burn it down’.

He later sent apologetic messages to her via Instagram in a bid to reconcile but became abusive again.

Mr Oakley explained: “The victim contacted the police and they arrested him. They released him on bail with the condition not to contact her and then she made a further statement on September 30 stating she received a message saying, ‘I’m going to kill you’ from someone.

Weymouth Magistrates Court

“She also received a voice note from the defendant and this was in breach of bail conditions.”

Wells admitted in police interview that he sent abusive messages which amounted to stalking and shared his difficulty sleeping and dismay at the breakdown of the relationship.

The victim did not write a victim impact statement but she said she was ‘frightened’ by the messages.

Wells of Forum View, Bryanston, Blandford Forum, pleaded guilty to stalking between September 11 and September 30.

Defending, Philomena Murphy, noted that Mr Wells reacted in the way he did because he is a young adult and believed young adults sometimes ‘don’t have the emotional maturity to deal with break up of relationships'.

She added: “To add to the mix, this is a young man with various conditions, those conditions make his emotional response more extreme and his condition is not allowing him to understand his words and actions have impact on others.

“He finds himself in court for first time and loss of good character. That is not diminishing the seriousness of the offence.”

Ms Murphy asked magistrates to issue Wells a community order to help him learn from his experiences, gain new skills and ‘so he never ends up in this court never again’.

Magistrates issued Wells an 18-month community order with and a two-year restraining order where he must not contact the victim directly or indirectly or see her in person.

He was also ordered to pay £300 compensation, £270 fine, £95 victim surcharge and court costs of £85.