A 'Controlling' boyfriend is behind bars after a terrifying campaign of harassment against a partner he had been with for just weeks.

Michael Coates bombarded the woman with text messages, telephone calls and Facebook posts saying he could not believe she wanted to end the fledgling relationship.

He assaulted the single mum within days of meeting her, Teesside Crown Court was told.

The relationship ended and magistrates gave the 29-year-old fitness fanatic a suspended prison sentence and restraining order.

But less than three months later, Coates turned up at the woman's Darlington home, kicking in a front door and pulling off the letterbox.

Yet, magistrates gave him another chance with a second suspended jail term and restraining order - which he flouted inside five days.

Throughout February, Coates terrorised his ex, on one occasion sneaking up to her home and listening through the letterbox, then texting her to say he heard her having sex.

One message said: "Oi, sh*t head! am I wasting my time here? F***ing nice one. Thought I meant more to you than this. You do know when I get caught, I'm getting locked up for a bit, don't you?"

Zoe Passfield, mitigating, said Coates had never been violent and had rarely been threatening during the harassment, and he now accepted the relationship was over.

Miss Passfield told the court that he will miss "important family occasions" while he is in prison, and added: "That has had quite an impact on him, and will give him opportunity to reflect."

Coates, of Washbrooke Drive, Darlington, was jailed for 12 months after he admitted harassment and two charges of breaching a suspended sentence and restraining order.

The judge, Recorder James Adkin, said the earlier punishments from magistrates had been "lenient" and told Coates his "controlling behaviour and sexual jealousy" was "a potent combination".

He said the worrying background to the case included a conviction for harassment against another former partner six years ago, and a two-year sentence in 2007 for causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

In a statement, Coates's victim said: "His refusal to just leave me alone is destroying my life. I'm on edge constantly, wondering what he will do next, where he might come from.

"He is making me scared to go out with my child. I just want it to stop".

She added: "He seems to think he is the victim, but I want the courts to make him realise the damage he is doing to my life."

For help to counter domestic violence go to www.womensaid.org.uk