Sentencing adjourned in non-molestation case (From Daily Echo)

Sentencing adjourned in non-molestation case

9:48am Thursday 23rd August 2012 in News

A JUDGE adjourned sentencing a man convicted of seeing his former partner despite a court order banning him from doing so, after his victim pleaded that he be spared jail.

Derek Johnson, 37, had been committed for sentence to Southampton Crown Court for breaching a non-molestation order and obstructing police.

But before the case got under way Judge Peter Henry raised his concerns about the disparity between the statement, in which Donna Parnell asked for a restraining order banning him from seeing her, and a letter in which she pleaded with the judge not to jail him.

Prosecutor Louise Howard revealed there was evidence that when Johnson broke the order Ms Parnell had invited him around. She added that a text message had also been sent from her phone wishing him good luck at the court hearing. Adjourning the case until August 29, Judge Peter Henry said: “I want to know where the truth lies.”

Johnson, of Ridding Close, Southampton , had bail extended.