A MAN has been jailed for 19 weeks after he defied two court orders and threatened his ex-girlfriend while she was working at a city centre hairdresser’s.

Steve Ovenden, prosecuting, said the woman started to shake and felt sick when her ex-partner Richard Stewart Hurst banged on the window of the salon in Coppergate Walk and stood in its open doorway.

Hurst’s violence towards her ended their relationship last July.

In August, to protect her, York magistrates had banned him from going into the salon or contacting her in any way under a 12-month restraining order.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do,” the woman later told police.

“I could hear him saying ‘you are a slag’ and ‘I would love to know who your new boyfriend is”.

Mr Ovenden said the hairdresser heard the word “kill” and wasn’t sure who Hurst wanted to kill.

Describing the effect of the incident on her, she said: “I am constantly worried about what he may do. I don’t come into York drinking because I fear I might bump into him. He won’t leave me alone,” she told police.

Hurst’s outburst came two days after York magistrates imposed a 17-week prison sentence on him for theft and making off without payment and suspended it for 12 months on condition he stayed out of trouble, said Mr Ovenden.

Hurst, 29, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to breaching the restraining order. Magistrates extended the order indefinitely and ordered him to serve the suspended sentence, plus two weeks for the salon incident.

His solicitor Andrew Craven said he denied using the word “kill” and claimed the hairdresser was shouting back at Hurst.

Hurst had been out for a drink with his new partner and when they went past the salon and saw the hairdresser through the window the “temptation just proved too much,” said the solicitor.

“He just made a fool of himself. He didn’t make any threats of violence. “