A BULLYING boyfriend who bombarded his ex-partner with phone calls after they split up was jailed yesterday for what a judge described as “nothing less than stalking”.

Ryan Squires pestered the woman remorselessly and turned up outside of her home and near her workplace during a campaign of “mental torture”, Teesside Crown Court heard.

He also called her bosses and told them she took drugs and should be sacked, and things got so bad that her manager had to tell Squires that she no longer worked there.

The 23-year-old, from Hartlepool, was repeatedly given bail after being questioned by police, but carried on harassing his ex, and went on to commit further crimes.

He assaulted a man in the street and took money from him, used a stolen bank card to buy things, and turned the attic in his flat into a cannabis farm, the court heard.

Judge Sean Morris told him: “By far the most serious matter I have to sentence you for is a whole series of appalling behaviour towards a young woman who you regarded to have the audacity to finish with you. That happens, live with it.

“What you put her through over months was a catalogue of bullying and controlling behaviour. This kind of behaviour can demean and degrade the victim to a point where they feel worthless, and sometimes blame themselves, wrongly. It is akin to mental torture. What you were doing was nothing less than stalking. It was obsessive control-freakery, and the courts regard it seriously. It can have dire consequences for the victim.”

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said Ryan had been badly affected by a family tragedy, and had become “attached” to his former partner when she had shown empathy, sympathy and affection.

Rachel Masters, prosecuting, told the court that the woman woke one morning to find 37 missed calls on her mobile phone, and when she later showed the handset to police, the only contact on her caller list was Squires - and he had tried to get in touch 68 times.

During the same period, the unemployed cable-puller’s mother, Paula Hanley, rang the woman to tell her to drop earlier charges, “or there’d be hell on”.

Hanley, 46, of Troutpool Close, Hartlepool, admitted sending a threatening electronic communication, and was given a ten-month suspended prison sentence. Her barrister, Mark Styles, said she had been traumatised by the murder of her daughter, and feared losing another child to prison, and acted out of misguided loyalty.

Squires, of the same address, admitted putting a person in fear by harassment, assault, theft, handling stolen goods and two charges of fraud, and was jailed for two-and-a-half years.

The judge told Hanley: “I think you are the only person who has ever come before me for this kind of thing who has not gone straight to prison.

“Threatening witnesses strikes at the very heart of the criminal justice system. Do you want to live in the Wild West, because that’s what would happen if witnesses were warned off.”