AN ESTRANGED father of three from Swindon has been banned from contacting his former partner after sending her 15 text messages in three days.

Aaren Goodfellow, 42, of Flat 1, Canal Side, The Moorings, pleaded guilty to a charge of harassment without violence before Swindon magistrates on Wednesday.

Prosecuting, James Burnham told the court that on October 5 this year Goodfellow had been sentenced and fined for harassment of his former partner but at that time the court did not make a restraining order to protect the victim.

Fairly soon after leaving court that day Goodfellow sent a text to his former partner, feeling that as there was no restraining order he had been given the green light to contact her, Mr Burnham said.

The text message read: “No hard feelings, I got a fine. I hope you can see sense so I can see my children.”

Between then and October 7 Goodfellow sent a further 14 text messages to the same recipient, who replied to none of them, Mr Burnham said. The victim eventually called the police.

“The messages contained a certain amount of animosity and were a course of conduct amounting to harassment,” said Mr Burnham, who asked the magistrates to make a restraining order preventing contact with the victim.

Defending, Gordon Hotson said the two parties in the case had been in an on-off relationship for a considerable period of time. The relationship finally broke down in the latter part of last year.

Goodfellow had, Mr Hotson told the court, asked his solicitors if he was allowed to contact his former partner and had been told that as there were no bail conditions and no restraining order there was nothing preventing him from doing so.

All the text messages were sent with the aim of him being permitted to see his children to whom he had last spoken in April of this year.

“This is a man who was desperate, a man who was frustrated and he didn’t appreciate that texted constituted harassment,” said Mr Hotson.

“He accepts he ought to have stopped after it was clear that she was not going to reply. He now accepts that he cannot resolve the issue with her and will have to go through the courts to sort it out.

“He just does not want to give up on his children.”

The magistrates imposed a restraining order for 12 months to protect the complainant with the conditions that Goodfellow should have no contact with the complainant other than through a third party and only to facilitate child contact.

He was also ordered to pay a fine of £80, court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £30.