A MAN harassed his former partner, including making threatening visits to her at the hair salon where she worked.

Lee David Cariss also threatened to damage her home during the near six-month period he tormented the woman, who is the mother of his child.

Cariss, 29, now said to have a new partner, admitted a single charge of harassing the woman, but without violence, from September last year to February, at Durham Crown Court yesterday.

He previously denied charges of possessing an offensive weapon, threatening to destroy property and common assault.

A trial was to have begun yesterday, but David Wilkinson, prosecuting, offered no evidence on those charges, after Cariss admitted the harassment allegation.

Mr Wilkinson said the harassment involved Cariss visiting the hairdressing salon where his former partner worked, in Stanley.

He also contacted her by phone and threatened to smash the windows at her home.

Following a request by defence barrister Alun Jones, Recorder William Lowe ordered probation reports to be prepared and adjourned sentence for three weeks.

Bailing Cariss, of Tweed Terrace, Stanley, Recorder Lowe told him: "All sentencing options will be considered, and that includes custody."