An ex-boyfriend broke the law by walking into his ex-girlfriend’s house during the Spring lockdown, York Magistrates Court heard.

David Andrew Kirby, 33, was banned from going near her or her home under a non-molestation order.

Melanie Ibbotson, prosecuting, said the woman was sitting on her stairs on the phone talking to her sister when Kirby “walked straight through the front door” on May 30.

She asked him "a number of times" to leave. He refused until she phoned the police.

He was arrested nearby.

At the time, most shops were still closed as were all pubs and schools.

The Government was advising against all but essential journeys.

Kirby, of Westfield Place, Acomb, pleaded guilty to breaching a non-molestation order made at York Family Court on February 26.

He was given an 18-month community order with 20 days’ rehabilitative activities.

He was also fined £200 and ordered to pay a £95 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

District judge Adrian Lower told him: “Since the breach, there is no suggestion you have been as foolish again as to go round to your former partner’s house for whatever reason.”

Kevin Blount, for Kirby, said he had wanted to sort out an issue between the two.

He had used the phone a number of times, but that had not been sufficient.

So he had gone round to the ex-girlfriend's house.

He now appreciated he had gone about the issue the wrong way and would now use other, legal means of sorting out the matter.

He had also taken steps to distance himself from his former associates who had “led him to drink” and into trouble.

The former girlfriend told police the incident where Kirby had walked through the door had made her feel very low.

She wanted him to stop arriving at her house unannounced and felt he needed help with alcohol problems.

Ms Ibbotson said the couple had been in a relationship for eight years.

It had broken down last July.

The non-molestation order remains in place until next February.