Jealous stalker held screwdriver to his ex's throat

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

- JASON EVANS Court and crime reporter [e-mail]

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".

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 that 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.