A jilted boyfriend has been jailed for repeatedly pestering his ex-partner after he had been ordered not to do so.

Michael Giles from Whiddon Down became obsessed with his former girlfriend after she ended their ten-year-long relationship and he has already been jailed twice for harassing her.

He was banned from any sort of contact by a restraining order after being convicted of stalking her in February last year but has broken it three times.

He did so again by waving at her as she passed his parked car in Okehampton and trying to ring her repeatedly in June.

Giles, aged 36 admitted breaching a restraining order and was jailed for a year by Recorder Mr Malcolm Galloway at Exeter Crown Court.

He made a new and indefinite restraining order which prohibits him from going to her home and workplace in Okehampton.

He told him: “You have broken this order again. You cannot accept the relationship is over. It is. She has moved on. That is the reason for the restraining order.

“She felt anxious and insecure in her own home. Her children were unsettled; and all because of your selfish behaviour.

“I take into account the mitigation arising from your learning disability but the court has given you opportunities numerous times when you have been told to leave her alone.

“You were fully aware of what you were doing when you phoned her again and again. If you breach the order again, the sentences will get longer and longer.”

Mr Paul Grumbar, prosecuting, said the couple broke up after ten years in September 2018 but Giles became increasingly fixated and obsessed.

He followed her and left messages and presents on her car or at her home. He continued to contact her after being prosecuted for stalking and made subject of the order.

The latest offences started when she blocked a number which had tried to call her shortly before Valentine’s Day. She noticed in June there had been several more attempts to call her from the same phone, which police were able to link to Giles.

Miss Hollie Gilbery, defending, said Giles suffers from a learning difficulty which makes it hard for him to understand the order. He committed these offences because he wanted to see his children.

She said he would lose his job if he were sent to prison, which would prevent him supporting his two children. She said: “He wants to be a Dad who provides, not a Dad in prison.”