A MAN who told his girlfriend that he had hired somebody to kill her has appeared in court.

Over a period of ten days, Keffan Gardner Hopper, 22, of Angram Place, Newton Aycliffe, made threatening calls and text messages to former partner Jacqueline Crichton.

Yesterday at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates Court, Hopper pleaded guilty to harassment.

Toby Thomas, prosecuting, told the court the pair had a volatile relationship and had split up three months ago.

Between November 5 and November 15, Hopper had sent a series of text messages to Crichton.

At one point he texted to say she had ten minutes to get out of her house or he was going to kill her and her children.

On another occasion, Hopper contacted her to say he was going to pay someone £500 to have her killed.

Ms Crichton then received further texts from Hopper saying he was going to kill her in 20 minutes .

In the early hours of November 14, Hopper made a number of phone calls to Ms Crichton before turning up at her house and breaking nine of her windows.

Mr Thomas said: "This was done when her children were in the house and clearly was a very terrifying experience for all concerned."

When Hopper was arrested he admitted making the threats, but said he would never have carried them out.

Bruce Cunningham, mitigating, said his client had voluntarily begun counselling to control his behaviour.

Magistrates adjourned the case until December 13 for a pre-sentence report.