AN OBSESSED and possessive man has been jailed for again breaching a restraining order put in place to protect his ex-partner who he’d previously assaulted.

Arwel Dyer was made the subject of an indefinite restraining order in March 2016 after he was convicted for battery and criminal damage against his former partner. The order banned him from contacting her directly or indirectly.

However, Dyer breached the order just a month later, and then breached it again in May 2017.

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The defendant, now 30, was brought back before Swansea Crown Court after persistently messaging his ex-partner and her friends and family.

Prosecutor Harry Dickens told the court that Dyer messaged one of his ex-partner’s friends on the evening of August 11 asking them to get her to text him because he’d heard she was going through a difficult time.

The next morning, he sent a similar message to his ex-partner’s mother, before then messaging the victim: ‘I know this is random. Are you okay? I heard about you’ on WhatsApp.

The victim blocked Dyer, but he then texted her saying ‘I still love you’ and ‘I know you still have feelings for me’, before sending a message aimed at her partner claiming she had been unfaithful to him.

She also received two emails from Snapchat which both said the defendant’s account had attempted to add her as a friend.

“In the eight years subsequent to their separating, she feels unable to move on,” Mr Dickens said.

He added that she reported being “constantly on edge, frightened of further violence and further harassment”.

Dyer was arrested on August 13 and gave a no comment interview. He also refused to give officers access to his phone.

The defendant, of Heol Y Parc in Cefneithin, had seven previous convictions for 11 offences.

“Mr Dyer bitterly regrets his actions,” said Emily Bennett in mitigation. “That’s demonstrated by the immediacy of his guilty plea at the magistrates' court.

“It has been a long period of compliance since 2017.”

She said the defendant was “in a very dark place” after his relationship came to an end, and this led him to believe that he still loved the victim.

Ms Bennett said this was Dyer’s first time in custody, and that it had been “somewhat of a blessing in disguise” as he was now clean of all substances.

Judge Paul Hobson described Dyer’s behaviour towards his victim as “an ongoing obsession” and said it showed signs of “possessiveness”.

“If she’s going through a tough time, you getting in touch with her was only going to make that worse. You know that,” he said.

“You have been given over the years chance after chance by the court and yet you have now breached this restraining order three times.

“Perhaps you formed the view that you would avoid immediate custody because you had done in the past.”

Judge Hobson sentenced Dyer to 12 months in prison.