Herrington, R v

J U D G M E N T

MR JUSTICE EDIS: On 1st March 2017 His Honour Judge Batty QC, the Recorder of York, sent this appellant to prison for a total of 12 months and imposed a restraining order under section 5 of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 restraining him from contacting Holly Jones, directly or indirectly, for three years. He now appeals against the restraining order only by leave of the single judge. We emphasise that this appeal is limited to the restraining order and the other orders, including the prison sentences imposed, remain entirely unaffected.

Despite the limited nature of the appeal, it is necessary to set out the history to an extent. For some years the appellant and Holly Jones have lived together and they have one child who is now three years old. The appellant is a violent and unruly man. Today is his 38th birthday. He has 36 convictions for 97 offences dating back to 1995. His record runs to many pages and includes convictions for offences of violence, arson and possession of weapons. It contains multiple convictions for breaking orders of the court of various kinds.

On 24th November 2015 he was sentenced to a total of 11 months' imprisonment for assault occasioning actual bodily harm and criminal damage. The victim was Holly Jones. A suspended sentence of nine months for unrelated offences which had previously been imposed was also ordered to run consecutively. It appears that he was due for release towards the end of January or in early February 2017 and at that time Holly Jones obtained a non-molestation order from the County Court for her protection in anticipation of his release. That order was granted on 1st February 2017. She later explained that she did this because she felt pressured by the social services. The order was to remain in force until 22nd February 2017. It lapsed in due course because she did not seek its renewal.

A matter of hours after his release on 6th February 2017 the appellant committed the three offences for which he was sent back to prison by His Honour Judge Batty QC on 1st March. He and Holly Jones were seen to be walking past a kiosk in a bus station by the duty manager. The appellant was swearing at Miss Jones. After walking past Mr Cullen, the manager, she sat on a bench. The appellant crouched in front of her. She was seen to be crying, saying something to him. He then slapped her five or six times, not using great force. He then put his head underneath her chin and pushed it up three times, a