A driver sent to prison last week for dangerous driving has now been given extra jail time for stalking his former partner.
Carl Harry Johnstone, 30, was handed an immediate 16-month custodial term at Carlisle Crown Court for offending which occurred during the early hours of October 27 last year.
Despite being banned from getting behind the wheel, Johnstone took his ex-girlfriend’s car without permission and crashed it after a high-speed police pursuit.
He hit around 80mph on narrow country roads and spent more than 13 minutes trying to flee a police patrol vehicle car. That escape bid ended when he crashed into a grassy bank.
Johnstone admitted five offences and was given an immediate 16-month prison sentence, plus a driving ban, by a judge last Tuesday.
Today, he was sentenced at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court for additional crimes.
The court heard how, following the October motoring offences, Johnstone was bailed on condition that he had no contact with his former partner.
But earlier this year, Johnstone stalked the woman. Between February 11 and March 11, he visited a Carlisle leisure centre three times when he knew she was there, approaching her on the first occasion. He tried to call her and left gifts for a child on a house doorstep.
“I am scared in my own home,” the woman said in an impact statement. “I desperately want Carl to stop, not only for me but for my family.”
Johnstone initially denied stalking without fear and assaulting an emergency worker by punching a police officer, but admitted the offences on the day he was due to stand trial.
Duncan Campbell, mitigating, gave background information about Johnstone’s visits to the leisure centre. He said there had been no threat of any kind by the defendant, nor amy intention to cause the woman harm.
Deputy district judge Steven Jonas imposed an immediate 12-week prison term, to be served consecutively with the 16-month term. “Custody is unavoidable,” said the judge. Johnstone, of West Road, Wigton, was given a 10-year restraining order and must pay £100 to the officer he assaulted.
