Woman feared fight between her love rivals when both turned up at Stockton home

Violence flared when two love rivals turned up at a woman’s home at the same time, a court was told.

James Brown, 23, said that he had been invited to the woman’s home but there was already an unexpected caller at the house in Stockton - her baby’s father.

Prosecutor David Crook told Teesside Crown Court that as Brown hammered on the front door the other man shouted from the other side: “I’ve just come to see my son.”

Brown then smashed a window and he got inside, while the woman called the police fearing a fight between the men.

Brown was arrested as he had breached a restraining order banning him from contacting her or from approaching within 200 metres of her address.

The couple had been in a five year relationship since he was 13 but she ended it because of his alleged abusive behaviour.

Mr Crook said that the man arrived at 9.15pm on August 2 “somewhat drunk and belligerent” and Brown was at the door minutes later.

Brown’s behaviour in breaching the order left him spending three months in prison waiting to be sentenced.

Mr Crook said that the woman, who was in court, told him that she did not want Brown to go to jail for it.

She said that she did not want a restraining order on him,and she said that they had been contacting each other despite the original order which was imposed at Teesside Crown Court in March when he was sentenced for two offences of criminal damage at her home.

She said in a Victim Impact statement which was read in court yesterday: “I love James, I do really want him to be released.”

Duncan McReddie, defending, said that the woman had even been texting Brown when he was in the dock during the previous case.

Judge Howard Crowson said: “The reality is that she was encouraging a breach of that order not because of any fear, it was a choice that she made.

“It was of course your obligation to abide by my order, but you went there by invitation.

“You were angry to discover another man in the house and he was not entirely a welcome visitor. He was the father of the child and she had tolerated him being there. You lost your temper with her but she felt that there would be a fight between you and the other man but there wasn’t one.”

Brown, of Laurel Road, Stockton, was given a 12-month community order with supervision and 24 sessions of a programme Building Better Relationships after he pleaded guilty to breach of the order and affray. He was ordered to pay £60 court surcharge and the judge revoked the restraining order.