A STALKER who was spotted on CCTV creeping around his ex-partner’s house while she was out has been jailed.

Paul Moses, of Spring Gardens, near Bishop Auckland, had initially denied an offence of common assault against a woman, on September 21 last year, and of stalking the same victim, between January 6 and February 5 this year.

But Durham Crown Court, sitting at Newcastle on Friday, heard that the 37-year-old had admitted the offences earlier in the week.

Moses and the woman began seeing each other in May 2019 but the relationship was described as ‘up and down’ and she had ended it by September.

Prosecutor Shaun Dryden the woman continued to use Moses’ car for a short while after they separated until September 21, when she went to return the car to his parents’ house.

When she saw Moses at the roadside, the woman stopped the car, got out and walked away.

Mr Dryden said: “The defendant followed, grabbed her by the left arm and waist and was verbally abusive.”

He said the friendship was briefly rekindled around Christmas but in January the victim asked Moses to leave her alone, but a number of incidents amounting to stalking then followed.

On January 4, Moses, who knew the access code for the gates, let himself into the victim’s property and she had to push him out the front door.

"Once outside, he smashed a bottle of alcohol on the ground and became abusive towards the complainant,” Mr Dryden said.

On January 6, she was parked outside the Eden Arms pub, in West Auckland, waiting for her son when Moses banged on the car roof and swore at her.

On January 7, he went to retrieve his property from the woman's garden and when she reviewed CCTV saw he had been inside when she was not home.

“He walked down the drive, tried the door, located a spare key and let himself in. He was inside for five minutes, she has no idea why especially when she wasn’t there,” said Mr Dryden.

On January 17, the woman had her son in the car when Moses blocked her driveway and she had to reverse to get away.

Mr Dryden said: “He followed and drove extremely close behind her vehicle before overtaking. As she approached a roundabout on the A68 the defendant stopped his car, got out and walked towards her vehicle. She was able to drive round and left the area.”

The court heard that Moses also called her phone using a withheld number, appearing to be intoxicated at the time, and called her a slag.

Helen Towers, mitigating, said Moses and the victim were both recently separated when they began seeing each other in May 2019.

She described the relationship as ‘very up and down’ and said they had spent Christmas and New Year together before the woman realised she didn’t want it to continue.

She said Moses had allowed his ex-partner to use his vehicle but the word ‘c*nt’ had been carved into the bonnet and, believing she was responsible, confronted her the day she returned it.

Ms Towers added: “He accepts grabbing her caused her alarm and he shouldn’t have let anger get the better of him.

“I don’t seek to minimise his behaviour, and he doesn’t ask me to, but he took the break-up incredibly badly.”

She said Moses is a father who works and employs one other person erecting steel frames and that he is capable of rehabilitation.

Judge Ray Singh said that in a victim impact statement, the woman described her anxiety as ‘being through the roof’.

He said: “She didn’t feel safe in her own house, she knew you had been letting yourself in which made her feel physically sick, as a result she made changes to her behaviour, friends were reluctant to visit. Your name calling and abuse left her with low self-esteem.

“She still feels unsafe, uneasy when she sees a van like yours, she in on-guard and seriously thinking about moving house so you don’t know where she lives.

“She just doesn’t feel safe and struggles to have relationships.”

The court heard that Moses had eight previous convictions for eight offences, including an affray in 2007 and breaching a non-molestation order against a different woman in 2019.

Judge Singh sentenced Moses to nine months in prison, less the time he was on remand and half the days he spent electronically tagged.

He was also made the subject of a five year restraining order which prohibits him from contacting the victim and ordered to pay a victim surcharge.