A 32-year-old Colchester man who was jilted by his girlfriend has been warned he could be jailed after repeatedly breaching a court order banning him from contacting her.

The woman and Thomas Webb had been in a short relationship which she ended in 2016 and since then he had appeared before courts on five occasions between 2017 and September 2020 accused of breaching a restraining order and other offences including stalking and harassment.

He was back before Ipswich Crown Court on Friday (January 14) and admitted a further attempted breach of the restraining order on December 3, 2021.

The court heard that on that occasion Webb, of Wimpole Road, Colchester, had gone to a pub where his former girlfriend was working.

One of her colleagues saw Webb in the bar staring at his ex-girlfriend and he was told he couldn’t be there.

A man who was with Webb had left and Webb said he didn’t realise his former girlfriend worked there and had then left as well.

Webb also admitted breaching the restraining order in August last year by going to another pub and asking a woman who worked behind the bar if she knew where his ex-girlfriend lived.

He said he was the woman’s ex boyfriend and someone else at the pub had sent a message to the victim telling her that Webb was in the pub asking about her.

Peter Spary, for Webb, who is in custody and appeared before the court via prison video link, said his client was an alcoholic and was on anti-depressants.

He said Webb had committed the breaches of the restraining order after he had been drinking and he had been jailed for 10 months in 2020 for an earlier breach.

Recorder Graham Huston adjourned sentence until February 25 to allow a pre-sentence report and a psychiatric report to be obtained on Webb.

He said Webb’s history of offending since the break up of the relationship was “extremely troubling”.

“I can’t allow this cycle of offending to continue and intervention is absolutely necessary,” said the judge.

“I can’t indicate what sentence will follow - all sentencing options will be available and immediate custody will be an option."