A man who was dumped after going back onto drugs rang his ex-partner and said traveller friends would kill her and her children, a court heard on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.
Aaron Poynter, 33, had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act when he rang the woman from the Ash Ward psychiatric unit in Luton.
Prosecutor Duncan O’Donnell told Luton Crown Court that Poynter, from Dunstable, had been in a six-month relationship with the woman.
“He was never physically violent, but was verbally controlling and said he would kill himself if she split up from him.
“He had drug problems in the past and two weeks before the end of the relationship took crack,” said the prosecutor.
On October 6, last year he turned up at her home and refused to leave. The police were called and he was detained under the Mental Health Act. Mr O’Donnell said on 14th October Poynter phoned her from the ward.
“He said he wanted to rekindle the relationship.
“He said he had traveller friends watching her house and would get them to shoot her and her children.
“The defendant referred to one of her children as a ‘spastic’ and told her he had a shotgun buried in a field at Hockliffe,” said the prosecutor.
The woman called the police. She received 25 more calls from Poynter, but did not answer them. She also took a call from another patient on the Ash Ward who had been asked to ring by him. In her statements, the victim said she was scared of Poynter and his unpredictable state of mind.
Poynter of Brewers Hill Road, Dunstable appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty to making malicious communications. He had 24 convictions for 41 offences.
In 2016 he was jailed for six years and two months for conspiracy to burgle and burglary and was out of licence when he threatened the woman. Defending, Minal Raj said Poynter had been recalled to prison until June next year.
She said the communications from him to the victim were “at a distance” while he was in the Ash Ward.
Ms Raj said: “She had resumed an relationship with an ex. He was distressed and resorted to Class A drugs. He spiralled downwards, which had led him to be sectioned.”
She said he had been receiving excellent help while in Peterborough prison.
Judge Gary Lucie sentenced him to 31 weeks, which will run alongside the burglary sentence.
He told Poynter: “The phone calls you made whilst you were at the mental health ward were threatening. You spoke of shooting her and her children or getting someone else to do it. You abused her child.
“The impact on her has been significant. She said she is constantly looking over her shoulder and checking the windows and doors are locked.”
The judge also made an order banning Poynter from contacting the woman, directly or indirectly, for two years.
