[A] MAN who urged his girlfriend not to give evidence against him in court has been handed a 14-month jail term.
Ricky Holt, 25, was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court today (TUES) having admitted doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice.
Holt’s crime, committed between September 15 and October 8, came after he was alleged to have assaulted long-term partner Jodie Fox at Workington. This allegation was ultimately not proceeded with.
But in the meantime, Holt sent Ms Fox a string of text messages “cajoling” her into dropping the case against him. One read: “Don’t send me to jail.”
Defence lawyer David Thompson stressed Holt, a rugby player and qualified plumber previously of Mill Street, Maryport, hadn’t threatened Ms Fox. However, he accepted trying to exert “emotional pressure”.
Imposing an immediate prison sentence, Judge Barbara Forrester told Holt, latterly of Bolton, Lancashire: “You were trying to disrupt the court procedures and that is why the matter is so serious.”
