Bulwell man’s violent texts to ex-partner led police to evidence of his drug dealing

Officers discovered messages which proved Glen Batchelor had been directly selling cannabis to users, between August 4, 2019, and February 17, 2020, Nottingham Crown Court was told.

Aaron Dinnes, prosecuting, said the messages had a “significant impact on his victim” and were committed in “a domestic context”.

Batchelor, aged 39, was acquitted of assault and intentional strangulation at a trial, but jurors found him guilty of sending a single message, in September last year, and harassing her over four days.

Sentencing, Mr Recorder Stuart Sprawson said their “loving and supportive relationship” changed after he became more domineering and the texts “put her in fear of violence”.

“There can be nothing more telling than a witness giving evidence before a judge like me,” he said. “She cried and broke down and had to ask for breaks.”

He said Batchelor sent pictures of her front door and inside her house “with the implication he was coming for her while she was in hospital”.

The court heard Batchelor has 27 previous convictions for 57 offences.

He was jailed for three years and six months for burglary, and cannabis production, in 2008, and has a similar cannabis conviction from 2021.

Roger Wilson, mitigating, said: “He says the messages were two-way accusations of him cheating. He will say she was giving as good as she got. He accepts the findings of the trial. He has spent six months in custody.”

Batchelor’s boss confirmed his job will remain open for him and his mother and ex-partner have both offered him somewhere to live on his release.

Mr Wilson said: “He wants to go back to work and earn and provide money for his children and ex-partner.”

Batchelor, of Saxondale Drive, Bulwell, was serving a 14-month suspended sentence, for a separate offence, at the time.

Jailing him for 21 months and imposing a four-year restraining order, Mr Recorder Sprawson told Batchelor: “I am satisfied your conduct had a dramatic and far-reaching impact and you put her through all of that during the course of your trial. You committed criminal offences and she did not.”