Jailed: Jealous stalker slashed tyres and sprayed graffiti on a bus stop branding ex a 'prostitute'

Damien Currier, aged 44, was violent towards his former partner, and embarked on a six-month campaign of abuse after they split up, a court was told.

He tried humiliate her and ruin her business with slurs, vandalised her car and left a can of petrol with a rag in the nozzle by her house.

Shrewsbury Crown Court heard how they met when Currier was 24 and the victim was 16. They later got into a relationship.

They split up, but the victim allowed Currier to stay at her house when he got evicted. He did not give her any financial help, and when she asked for money he became “occasionally violent”, slapping her, pulling her hair and banging her head into a car window.

Philip Beardwell, prosecuting, told Shrewsbury Crown Court that Currier also made derogatory remarks about the victim’s weightand abused cocaine. “She regarded this as the final straw and she brought the relationship to and end,” said Mr Beardwell.

From the end of January last year, Currier commenced a stalking campaign, starting by going on the victim’s cleaning business Facebook page and writing publicly: “Women, don’t leave your boyfriend at home,” alluding to promiscuity on her part which his jealous mind had perceived.

The tyres of her car were slashed and a corrosive substance was thrown over it, causing damage to the paintwork. Currier also left a can of petrol with a rag in the nozzle at her home. His DNA was found on the rag.

Currier also went to a bus stop near a school attended by the victim’s young son in the Lilleshall area and daubed a slur on the wall using the victim’s name, labelling her a prostitute. Currier was facing charges of controlling and coercive behaviour and stalking at the time, and his behaviour was considered witness intimidation.

The victim said the ordeal has caused her and her son to suffer from anxiety.

Currier, of Crown Street, Dawley, Telford, pleaded guilty to stalking and intimidating a witness. Those pleas were accepted before trial and the controlling and coercive behaviour charge was not proceeded with.

Rob Edwards, mitigating, said Currier wanted to punish the victim “in the best way he thought he could”, by damaging her property and costing her money.

He added that Currier is now in a new relationship, which is still ongoing despite his new partner knowing what he had done.

Judge Peter Barrie told Currier the victim was “perfectly entitled to say she’d had enough of him,” and his behaviour was “completely unjustified”.

He jailed Currier for 25 months and made him subject of a five-year restraining order, banning him from contacting his victim or going to Newport.