A dad has been jailed for breaching a restraining order for a fourth time.
Kieran Wynn was given a prison sentence and was made subject of a five-year restraining order for offences of battery, harassment and possession of an offensive weapon in September 2020.
The order forbids contact with the female victim "by any means".
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But the 29-year-old was hauled back to Durham Crown Court, via link from HMP Holme House, on Monday for breaching the restraining order.
He pleaded guilty to the charge at a previous hearing.
The court was told it was Wynn's fourth breach within eight months.
Chris Morrison, prosecuting, said Wynn committed the most recent breach on February 3, when he went to the woman's Ferryhill home.
"At around 11.40am a resident heard [the woman] shouting for her and she saw her and the defendant standing by a bed," he said.
"The woman introduced them, saying 'this is my lad,' the resident did not know who the man was.
"Later that day she went downstairs and the defendant was still there and he asked her for a cigarette.
"The next morning she heard the defendant shout to her, again trying to get a cigarette."
Mr Morrison said the resident encountered Wynn at the woman's home again the next day, when he asked if she "wanted a line".
The resident, who said Wynn was "well known in the area", was "worried about the situation" and reported it to police, with Wynn being arrested later that day.
Mr Morrison told the court Wynn "appears to have been staying with the woman at the address", and she was "not co-operative" with police.
"There is a suggestion there has been some element of co-operation in the breach," he added.
The court heard Wynn had "numerous previous convictions", including for burglary and cruelty to animals, and was on licence at the time of the offence for an unrelated matter which saw him recalled to prison.
Ashleigh Leach, mitigating said he "fully accepts being at her property".
"He had been there as he was invited to see his daughter who was turning two years old shortly after," she said.
"They seek to remain in a relationship, she never sought to have a restraining order in the first place and she has made applications to discharge the order.
"He has not caused any harm [to the woman] since the original offence."
Ms Leach added Wynn, of no fixed address, has a "stable job" as a scrap metal dealer and asked the court to keep the sentence "as short as possible".
Recorder Simon Goldberg said it was a "persistent breach" and that there was "no suggestion of harm being caused".
Wynn was given a four month prison sentence.
