A 56-year-old man pleaded guilty to harassment at Fermanagh Magistrates Court this week.

The court heard that over a period of almost three weeks in May of 2017 David Martin pursued a course of action that amounted to the harassment of Christine Stewart. Martin, who has an address of The Beeches Ballinamallard, had been in a relationship with the injured party, Miss Stewart.

The court heard that between May 11 and May 29 2017 Miss Stewart received phone calls and a number of text messages from a number that she did not recognise here. The prosecution stated that some of the text messages were sexual in nature and had caused considerable distress to the injured party.

It was revealed that police were able to trace the mobile number to the defendant.

A defending solicitor told the court that Martin was “harbouring hopes of rekindling” the relationship and had not intended to cause any distress.

The solicitor continued by asking for credit to be given to her client for his co-operation and “obvious remorse” shown. The solicitor also stated that under the influence of alcohol her client “had misconstrued how Miss Stewart would react” to the approaches made.

It was also argued on behalf of Johnston that since May 2017 no such incident had occurred in the almost 18 months in between.

Passing judgement District Judge Michael Ranahan stated that he “appreciated” that the defendant “did not intend to cause distress to the injured party” and that the offences fell at the “lower end of harassment”. He went on to say that it could be said that the messages were “sinister in nature” and fined martin £250 and granted a restraining order for nine months.