A MAN has been jailed for the second time for breaking a court order designed to protect his ex-girlfriend from him.

Police found Philip Seago, 42, in a drunken state near the home of his ex-girlfriend in January, despite him being subject to a restraining order that forbids him from going to her house, Michael Greenhalgh, prosecuting, said.

It was the fifth time he had broken the order, which was imposed after their three-and-a-half year relationship broke down. The woman had told police Seago was jealous and controlling in nature and had been so destructive with items in their home, her landlord had threatened to evict her.

Seago, of Foss Islands Road, York, pleaded guilty to breaching the restraining order and was jailed for eight months. Last February, he was jailed for nine months for another breach.

The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, told him: “That doesn’t seem to have deterred you. This was indeed a flagrant breach of the restraining order.”

Defending Seago, Kristian Cavanagh said at York Crown Court: “The nature of their relationship is such they simply cannot keep away from one another.”

Seago had been released from prison in July last year and had not reoffended since then, the court heard. He and the woman had resumed their relationship and she had asked for the restraining order to be removed.

The judge said that Judge Stephen Ashurst, the previous Honorary Recorder of York, had “very wisely” refused the woman’s application on the grounds it was too early to lift the order, which lasts indefinitely.

Mr Greenhalgh said after Seago's release from prison in July 2015, the couple had been living in the same house, but Seago had been possessive and controlling and had refused to leave the house, even when the woman told him they didn’t have a relationship and she didn’t love him.

She called police and he was arrested. The judge said Seago committed offences when he was drunk.