A stalker who turned his ex-partner’s life into a “living hell” has been jailed and banned for life from his home town.
Daniel Paszkowski, 41, defied a court order when he accosted the woman in the street and then confronted her in a Selby park, said Michael Cahill, prosecuting at York Crown Court.
He also grabbed her scarf as he tried to kiss her and in the following days bombarded her with phone calls from a withheld number, including 83 calls in a single day.
He had recently been released from a prison sentenced imposed for earlier breaches of the restraining order which bans him from contacting the woman and being with her and had also served a jail term for coercive and controlling behaviour towards her when they were in a relationship and two assaults on her, one of which caused her actual bodily harm.
An organisation which the woman uses regularly has installed safety measures against Paszkowski and he was seen waiting near its premises, said Mr Cahill.
In a personal statement, the woman said she struggled to believe the four-year ordeal that Paszkowski put her through would ever end.
She said when she had learnt he planned to return to Selby after his release from his latest time in prison, she had restricted her movements to going to work and other essential trips until she was effectively “hiding at home”.
“I live in constant fear of what will be next,” she said. “The day he approached me I felt so much fear as to what he could do. He has left a lasting impact on my life.”
The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said the confrontation on June 9 in Selby had been the latest example of Paszkowski’s “persistence in making this woman’s life a living hell".
He told Paszkowski: “This woman doesn’t belong to you. You are going to have to learn that lesson and you are going to have to learn the lesson of obeying court orders.”
He jailed him for three years and nine months and banned Paszkowski from all of Selby by extending the existing restraining order. It lasts indefinitely.
Selby town centre
(Image: Google Street View)
Paszkowski, formerly of Selby, pleaded guilty to stalking the woman and breach of the restraining order.
His barrister James Holding said the ban would prevent Paszkowski from seeing his mother, who lives in Selby and has serious health issues.
The judge said the mother would have to travel to see Paszkowski.
“That is not the court’s fault, that is your fault,” he told Paszkowski. “You have punished your mother as well.”
Mr Holding said Paszkowski planned to move to Wakefield to live with an uncle and to be near a job at a factory in Wakefield, which Paszkowski said would be available to him when he leaves prison.
He had been under a misunderstanding that the restraining order had expired when he was released from prison. He now understood that it remains in place.