A Milford man has been fined in court after admitting breaching a restraining order by posting an abusive Facebook status.

Twenty-two-year-old Cornelius James Hartveldt, of Richard John Road, pleaded guilty to a charge of breaching a restraining order on his conviction by making reference to James Hunt via social media, when he appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Dennis Davies told the court that on February 24 Mr. Hartveldt received the order following ongoing harassment caused to Mr. Hunt who is the husband of the defendant’s ex partner.

“Mr. Hartveldt has a child with his ex-partner and he tagged her into a post on his Facebook status, which was abusive towards Mr. Hunt, who was also later tagged into the post by someone else,” explained Mr. Davies.

Defence solicitor Matthew Greenish told magistrates that there had a been a lot of gossip and rumours flying around and that he had taken to Facebook to ‘spout off’ about and lost his temper.

“Somebody else linked Mr. Hunt into the status and it was then reported to the police.

“Mr. Hartveldt has a learning age of nine and suffers with ADHD. It was a minor breach of the restraining order and no direct contact or threats were made,” explained Mr. Greenish.

Magistrates fined the defendant £120 for the offence and also ordered him to pay costs of £85 and a £30 victim surcharge.