A SOUTHAMPTON man bombarded his previous partner with menacing text messages when he refused to accept that their relationship was over, the city crown court heard.

Frustrated David Padgett sent one saying that he had paid someone to kill her, and on a social messaging site he told her that he would keep coming back until “something serious happened”.

The chilling threat continued: “I will take hostages so that they will tell me where you are.”

Prosecutor Sadie Rizzo told how Padgett began seeing Oakley Preston when she was 16 but they separated for three years before their relationship was rekindled.

She ended their affair because she found him volatile, intimidating and controlling, but Padgett wouldn’t accept her decision and instead slept outside her home and bombarded her with messages.

“In the 24 hours before she made her statement to the police, she received about 100 text messages,” said Ms Rizzo, describing some as begging and others as threatening.

The court heard how Padgett also threatened to smash up the Chandler’s Ford sweet shop and icecream parlour of close friend Charlotte Jackson and attack her boyfriend Edward Lee.

Padgett, 24, of Witts Hill, Southampton, admitted three counts of harassment.

“These offences were serious, mean and despicable,”

said Recorder Jonathan Swift, giving him a 12-month suspended sentence coupled with 24 months’ supervision.

He also received a sixmonth drug rehabilitation requirement and a five-year restraining order forbidding him from contacting Ms Preston or approaching Ms Jackson’s business.

Chris Gaiger, defending, said that Padgett was heavily using cannabis at the time, adding: “He accepts his behaviour was unacceptable, he is remorseful and ashamed, and knows the relationship is over.”