Man admits breaching an order not to contact his ex-neighbour

A Wigan man's peace mission ended up with his arrest and appearance before magistrates.
Wigan and Leigh Magistrates' CourtWigan and Leigh Magistrates' Court
Wigan and Leigh Magistrates' Court

Darren Anthony Brown, 31, was spotted outside his former neighbour Natalie Lancaster’s new home while she watching television when he was barred from coming into contact with her.

Prosecutor Tess Kenyon told Wigan and Leigh justices that he had pushed open the letter box and shouted through: “I want to bury the hatchet.

“On my dad’s ashes no one will get hurt...”

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But the 31-year-old was arrested when police arrived because the contact meant that he had breached a restraining order granted by the court on September 18 to protect Ms Lancaster and strictly forbidding any other further contact.

Both parties had moved out since the restraining order had been granted.

Brown, who now lives in Knox House, Lowton, admitted the breach.

Ms Lancaster told the court in a statement: “I felt worried and frightened for my one-year-old baby in case he comes into my address like last time.”

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Defending, Bob Toppin said that the level of the breach of the restraining order carried out by Brown, a “hard working man” was in the “lower level”.

He hadn’t gone to the area of her new address specifically to talk to her but to visit his cousin who lived nearby.

The decision to try to speak to her had been a spur-of-the-moment decision with a “specific intention” to end the dispute between them.

Mr Toppin told the hearing: “He had gone around to apologise for his past behaviour.

“He wanted to make a fresh start.

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“The victim told him to leave, in not very polite terms, and she was also pretty vocal about it.

“Basically she told him to get lost before calling the police but that was no violence or threat of violence.

“Quite the opposite in fact.”

The case was adjourned pending sentence on a date yet to be set while a social inquiry report to be completed by the probation service.

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