A man from Neyland has been fined in court after admitting a harassment charge.

Thirty-seven-year-old Delme Morris Bateman, of College Park, appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court, on Tuesday, to plead guilty to a charge of sending a number of text message between June 28 and July 12 to the mother of his ex-partner which did not relate to child care.

The court heard how a restraining order was imposed on the defendant in court on June 28, which prohibited him from contacting the complainant on other matters aside from the child care of his daughter.

Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told the court that the complainant was the mother of Mr. Bateman’s previous girlfriend, with the couple having a daughter together.

“The restraining order had only recently been made and it only allowed Mr. Bateman to contact his child’s grandmother in relation to child care.

“The complainant told police that the texts the defendant was sending to her, put her in an ‘awkward and uncomfortable’ position.

“She said that she did not want to get into ‘text wars’ with Mr. Bateman and that she didn’t want to become nervous when he came around to collect his daughter from her,” continued Mr. Pritchard-Jones.

“Hopefully, this will be a reminder to him that he must keep the messages strictly in relation to child care contact in future,” he added.

Defence solicitor Mike Kelleher told the court that this was a somewhat ‘unusual’ restraining order, in that it applied to the ex-partner’s mother and not herself.

“The messages were not abusive, nasty or threatening. They started out as messages explaining ‘I shan’t be at the house’ or ‘I’ve not been well so I’ll be late,’ but my client does accept that some of the follow up messages were not to do with the childcare of his daughter.

“Mr. Bateman is already subject to a community order which is in it’s infancy, and accepts that there has been a breach of the conditions, but right at the bottom end of the scale,” added Mr. Kelleher.

Magistrates fined the defendant £250 for the offence and ordered him to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a £30 victim surcharge.