A LONER will spend Christmas in prison after stepping up a harassment campaign against his mother and stepfather in defiance of a court order.

James Maine, described as a man with few friends, was remanded in custody until January 11 by Harrogate magistrates after pleading guilty to breaching a restraining order, forbidding contact with Lyn and Robert Drummond, four times in two days.

The order, which also bans Maine, 30, from going near the couple's home in Inman Grove, Knaresborough, was imposed in February when he jailed for waging a campaign of terror against Mr and Mrs Drummond.

Stephanie Waite, prosecuting, told magistrates the four breaches, over the weekend of December 4 and 5, were not the first. Maine was already subject to a community rehabilitation order for an earlier offence.

On December 4, he had gone to the couple's home demanding to see his mother, returning three times the next day to shout obscenities. On one occasion, he threw an ornamental hedgehog at the house wall.

Days later Maine, formerly of Stockwell Lane, Knaresborough, but now homeless, handed himself in to police.

He was told by magistrate Brian Pattyson that the court needed to study a probation report on him before passing sentence. The report would take in all disposal options, including prison.