ASHLEY JAMES EDWARDS

A man broke into a former-partner's house and held a screwdriver to her throat, a court has heard.

Ashley Edwards followed that up by bombarding his ex with hundreds of abusive texts and phone calls including making threats to kill her - threats he later dismissed as "banter".The Swansea Crown Court heard former Tata Steel worker Edwards has a previous conviction for stalking and harassing a different former partner.

Sentencing the 36-year-old defendant, the judge told him: "Concentrate on being a father; give up cocaine; treat women properly."Samuel Jenkins, prosecuting, told the court that Edwards' relationship with the complainant in the case came to an end in May last year.

He said in the early hours of the morning of April 23 Edwards turned up uninvited at the home address of the woman and climbed in through a window.

Once inside the property the defendant began "shouting and screaming" at the woman about her being in a relationship with another man.

The prosecutor said Edwards then grabbed a screwdriver, pinned the woman down on the couch, and held the tool to her neck.

He said the woman was struggling to get free and when she told the defendant her young daughter was upstairs he replied: "I don't give a f***." The woman managed to free herself and Edwards left.The prosecutor said over the following couple of days the complainant received some 250 texts and calls from the defendant - many from withheld numbers - which were "aggressive, abusive and threatening" in nature and which included threats to kill her.

In one message Edwards told the woman he had a "blade" and he was "coming for you", while another message included a photograph taken in the woman's back garden.The court heard the matter was reported to the police and Edwards was arrested on April 27.

When asked for his phone the defendant told officers he had got rid of it but "following prompting" from his partner he said he had hidden it.

The mobile was recovered and seized.In his subsequent interview Edwards said he had been walking past his ex's flat when he saw an open window, and said when he climbed through it he saw the woman was with a man.

He accepted picking up a screwdriver but said he had just thrown it, and he described the subsequent messages and calls in which he had threatened the woman as "a joke" and "banter".

He admitted sending the picture of the back garden and said he had accessed the garden by climbing over the fence from a neighbour's property.

He added that he and his ex loved each other.In a statement from the victim which was read to the court by the prosecution barrister, the complainant said while the defendant had been living with her she felt like she was "walking on eggshells" around him, and she said "the abuse and the cocaine was relentless".

She said when Edwards had held the screwdriver to her neck she thought she was going to die and she said the defendant's actions had shattered her life and the life of her daughter.

The woman said she no longer feels safe in her own home as a result of Edwards' "erratic and delusional behaviour" but she said she hopes he learns from what he did and realises actions have consequences.Ashley James Edwards, of Clos Sant Paul, Llanelli, had previously pleaded guilty to stalking involving fear of violence when he appeared via prison videolink for sentencing.

He has one previous conviction from 2019 for three offences relating to the stalking and harassment of a different former partner.Ryan Bowen, for Edwards, said the defendant had worked at Tata Steel in Llanelli for seven-and-a-half years and had a "passion for singing and performing" which he had followed but said all that had been "torn away" from him by his habitual use of cocaine, a drug which he had been taking from the age of 17.

He said Edwards suffered from anxiety and depression and said being held on remand in prison since his arrest had been a "sobering experience" for his client in every way.

The barrister said Edwards was remorseful for his actions.Judge Huw Rees said he had read a letter from the mother of the defendant's child in which he was described as a "fantastic father", and he told Edwards it was a shame he had not thought about his boy when he had offended in the ways the court had heard during a time when he was "possessed of petty jealousy".

He noted Edwards had been in a relationship when he offended against his ex and he told him he had "no business being jealous" of his former girlfriend.The judge said there was enough cocaine in Llanelli without Edwards contributing to the problem, and he told the defendant: "You need to make a choice about taking cocaine - it is nothing but damaging to you and your prospects." He said he was satisfied there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in the case.With a one-third discount for his guilty plea Edwards was sentenced to 10 months in prison suspended for two years and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and a "building choices" programme.

He must also do 150 hours of unpaid work in the community.The judge told the tearful defendant: "Concentrate on being a father; give up cocaine; treat women properly."