Bulwell man waged campaign of violent threats and harassment against ex-partner

Dylan Brooks threatened he would ‘kill her and serve time’ while banging on her front door on August 22 last year as she made a ‘heart-wrenching’ 999 call and her baby screamed.

He demanded she open the door and poked his hand through the letterbox while she recorded the incident ‘because she knows what he is like’, said prosecutor Donna Fawcett.

By the time the police arrived he had left and she thought he would have been arrested after complaining about him the previous month.

The court heard their ‘toxic’ three-year relationship ended in January and he began harassing her with repeated texts and video messages.

Mr Fawcett said he threatened violence against her new partner, and made pleas and expressions of love which amounted to ‘oppressive and controlling behaviour’.

In one Snapchat message, sent in July, he recorded himself walking around on the roofs of buildings, saying ‘he can’t believe she has done this’, then threatening to kill her and her new partner.

Ms Fawcett said an allegation of assault, in which it is said Brooks threw his ex-partner against a wall, was made too late to be charged.

For this reason she was unable to accept the basis of his guilty plea.

But she said it wouldn’t make any difference to his sentence, which has a starting point of 36 weeks and up to 18 months in custody.

Graham Heathcote, mitigating, said Brooks, of previous good character, has not offended since, both parties have moved on, and he has started a new relationship.

“I invite the court to say it rules nothing out at this stage but nothing would be lost by the ordering of a probation report,” he said.

Brooks, aged 25, of Northcote Way, admitted a course of conduct which put his ex-partner in fear of violence, when he appeared at Nottingham Magistrates Court, on Wednesday, March 20.

Magistrates ruled the offence was too serious for their powers of sentence and committed the case to the crown court on May 15.

A restraining order was imposed and a probation report was ordered.