THIS is the face of the ‘obsessed’ and ‘possessive’ man who was jailed for again breaching a restraining order put in place to protect his ex-partner – who he had previously assaulted.
Judge Paul Hobson said Arwel Dyer had been given “chance after chance by the court” when he sentenced him to 12 months in prison for his third breach of the restraining order.
“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.
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Swansea Crown Court heard that 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.
The defendant, now 30, had been brought back before the court after persistently messaging his ex-partner and her friends and family in August.
Prosecutor Harry Dickens said 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.
Judge Hobson described Dyer’s behaviour towards his victim as “an ongoing obsession” and said it showed signs of “possessiveness”.
“You have been given over the years chance after chance by the court and yet you have now breached this restraining order three times,” he said.
“Perhaps you formed the view that you would avoid immediate custody because you had done in the past.”
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