A dad who posted "extremely unpleasant" and abusive comments on Facebook about his ex-partner and disabled child has been jailed.
Jake Harriman had been given a restraining order against his former partner in December, last year but breached it by posting comments on Facebook that "incited violence" against her and their two children. Between May 2 and May 6, the 28-year-old said he wanted to see them "ran over by a lorry" as well as writing other vile posts.
On Tuesday, Harriman appeared at Durham Crown Court to be sentenced for harassment and breach of a restraining order. He pleaded guilty to the charges at the hearing.
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Martin Towers, prosecuting, said Harriman and his former partner had been in an eight-year relationship which had ended in 2020. But in December 2021, a restraining order was made, banning him from having any contact with the woman after he was convicted of stalking and criminal damage. Contact did cease, the court heard.
But in May, this year, Harriman's ex-partner was contacted by two women via Facebook who made her aware of 17 posts the defendant had made on the social media site about her and their children - all of whom were fully identified. Mr Towers said: "The posts included unpleasant expressions of the defendant's desire of what should happen to her and the children, which included lorries driving into them, and said he didn't want his children to be alive."
Mr Towers said Harriman - who was living at a YMCA in Chester-le-Street at the time - also made a number of references to a disability one of his children has and said the posts were "very distressing" to the woman, who was worried he would "carry out" the threats he was making.
The court heard Harriman, of Middlesbrough Road, South Bank, Middlesbrough, had three previous convictions for five offences, including an assault he carried out on his own mother which saw him break her nose.
Martin Scarborough, defending, said: "Following the restraining order there had been no issues between the defendant and the complainant for a number of months. At the time of the offences he had been given medication for manic depression, which he suffers from. He has mental health difficulties and Asperger's. He took far too many of these tablets and has no real recollection of putting these messages on Facebook - he tells me he was 'off his head'."
Sentencing Harriman, Recorder Palmer, said: "The posts themselves were extremely unpleasant and you said what you would like to happen to your ex-partner and your children. You said you'd like to see them ran over by a lorry and that you were disowning them. These were terrible posts to put up about someone and they caused very considerable distress."
Harriman was jailed for 16 months and the restraining order against his former partner remains.
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