A MAN who stalked his former girlfriend on a six-mile car journey, breaching a restraining order for the second time, has avoided jail.

Despite having being given a suspended sentence for the last breach, Ryan Turner, of Barnard Avenue, Ludworth, County Durham, walked free from Newton Aycliffe Magistrates court with a community order.

The 32-year-old was accused of breaching the restraining order which banned him contacting his former girlfriend of two months, who he split from last year. He was found guilty of the offence following an earlier trial.

Prosecuting, Paul Doney said Turner's relationship with his girlfriend had been volatile, and while he wasn't physically violent, he would shout at her and her four-year-old daughter.

"After they separated he wouldn't leave her alone," he said. "He would turn up at her address and bombard her with text messages."

He said a restraining order was taken out in June.

On October 5 the victim was driving through Blackhall with a friend when she passed a junction and saw Turner behind the wheel of his car.

"He was staring at her," said Mr Doney.

"She carried on and thought it was just a chance meeting. However as she drove through Hartlepool... she looked in her rear view mirror and saw him behind her. He followed her over the roundabout.

"The defendant has overtaken her, slowed his car down and pulled alongside her, staring into the the car before pulling away at speed. She said she was shaking with her heart pounding."

The victim texted her support worker at domestic abuse charity Harbour, who advised her to report it to the police.

In an impact statement read out to the court, she said she had only been with Turner for two months but he had told her he would never let her get on with her life. She felt so intimidated she had put extra locks on her doors at home to protect her and her daughter.

In mitigation, Paul Donoghue said: "The defendant accepts it was a short relationship which he found it difficult to get out of. They were having a child together... she later told him she lost the child but he found out she got rid of the child. That is his explanation for why he has behaved like an absolute idiot over the last year.

"But despite the arguments there has never been any violence."

A probation officer's report said there had been 14 police call-outs to Turner, who currently lives with his grandmother, since 2014, one of which was for pushing a different ex-partner.

Magistrates gave him a 12-month community order, ordered him to pay £620 costs and an £85 victim surcharge.