Wigan man crashed through broken window after being dumped by text and locked out of house

Robert Woodward left the woman and his three young children terrified when he climbed through the shattered glass at the property they shared, after coming home to find the doors locked.

At Wigan and Leigh Magistrates’ Court, the 28-year-old, of West Street in Higher Ince, pleaded guilty to criminal damage, and using violence to secure entry to a premises.

The court heard how, on August 13, Woodward’s then-partner (and mother to his three young children), had ended their “turbulent” relationship via text message in the morning.

Anticipating him being angry on his return home from work later that day, she locked all the windows and doors at the house in Ashton, and shut all the curtains.

It was around 7.25pm that evening when Woodward came home, and upon finding himself locked out, began banging on the windows and demanding to be let in.

The three children, aged between nine and two years old, were reported to be distressed by the banging.

When Woodward’s initial attempts to get into the house were unsuccessful, he climbed onto a garden shed and climbed into the back garden.

He smashed a back window and began climbing in through the shattered glass.

Magistrates were told that by this time, his partner was on the phone to the police, and terrified by Woodward’s actions.

He demanded a set of car keys from her, which she obliged, and he walked through the house, took the car and drove off.

She was left “shocked and scared” by the incident, and officers who attended the scene reported that the children were in “considerable distress.”

Woodward was later arrested, and made full admissions to the offence.

He reportedly told officers he “lost his rag” after coming home from an 18 hour shift to find the door locked. He agreed that he could have dealt with the situation differently.

Representing himself, Woodward told the court that he had broken through the window to get to his children. He said: “I was worried about my kids.

“It wasn’t the fact I was locked out, it was just me trying to get to my children.”

Magistrates told Woodward that the correct course of action would have been to contact social services ids he had any worries about his children not to take matters into his own hands.

He was fined £315 for the incident.