A MAN who terrified his former partner with more than a hundred intimidating phone calls after attacking her in her home has been jailed for 31 months.

Steven Belsten sneered at the judge jailing him at Bradford Crown Court for breaching a restraining order just hours after it was made.

Belsten, 30, who was remanded in prison, had previous convictions for battery, breach of a non-molestation order and common assault.

Prosecutor Martin Robertshaw said that Belsten was ordered to comply with a five-year restraining order and a community order when he was convicted of battery on September 27.

But the same day, he was ringing his victim threatening to damage the home where she lived with her children and saying: “You’re dead.”

He made 60 calls in one day and 38 on another, verbally abusing the frightened mother.

Between October 1 and 8, there were 51 missed calls and Belsten continued to phone after being warned by a police officer present at the house. He made ten more calls that day, Mr Robertshaw said, on one occasion making “growling sounds.”

The victim became depressed and afraid, saying she felt like a prisoner in her own home. She was “scared stiff and constantly on edge,” the court was told.

When questioned by the police, Belsten said it wasn’t him making the phone calls.

Mr Robertshaw said the battery offence happened in June after Belsten had shouted threats and abuse outside the woman’s home.

He climbed in through the kitchen window in the early hours, grabbed the woman’s hair and dragged her downstairs.

She was shouting for help to the police on her phone as she punched her.

Belsten then squeezed her face so hard that she couldn’t breathe and dragged her back upstairs in front of her children who had been woken by the disturbance.

The police then arrived to apprehend Belsten who was remanded in custody.

His barrister, Christopher Dunn, said there had been “a seismic shift” in Belsten’s attitude since he was arrested. His drug addiction was wildly out of control at the time and he was now free from illegal substances. He was desperate at the time and not in his right mind.

Belsten was remorseful and very anxious to build bridges with his children.

“This was horrible and nobody knows that more than him, and he’s deeply ashamed,” Mr Dunn said.

Judge Jonathan Rose told Belsten he had been lucky to escape a prison sentence for the battery offence.

That very day, he breached the court orders, making more than a hundred calls in a short period of time.

“You are sneering as I speak to you,” Judge Rose said.

“You have pestered, harassed, intimidated and frightened this woman.”

Judge Rose made a new life-long restraining order to protect Belsten’s victim and revoked the community order imposed by the magistrates.