Walpole St Andrews man Alexander Monaghan handed restraining order by King’s Lynn court

A man demonstrated “clear remorse” by reporting himself to the police after breaching a court order.

Alexander Monaghan, 25, of Springfield Road in Walpole St Andrew, pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching a non-molestation order when he appeared at Lynn Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

Crown prosecutor Stephen Munton outlined the “slightly unusual circumstances” in which the offences came about, telling the court that Monaghan was made subject to the order in in May last year by Dartford Family Court.

It prevented him from contacting his ex-partner or referring to her in social media posts.

However, on October 16 and 17, he both posted a status about her on Facebook and then sent her WhatsApp messages. He claimed she had “made up lies” about him and that her love for him had been “fake”.

But just days later, Monaghan handed himself into the Metropolitan Police, admitting his breaches.

Mitigating, solicitor George Sorrell said that Monaghan, who was of previous good character, had not fully understood the non-molestation order.

“He was left with the understanding that somehow, the terms of the order were different to what they actually were,” he said.

“It is clear that due to unhappy circumstances in their relationship, these two people drifted apart - and that has caused great difficulties for him as he hasn’t been able to see his daughter since last February.

“When he made these posts, the date coincided with the first meeting with the lady in question. There was a fair amount of emotion going around at the time.

“But almost immediately, and it is a very telling point in this case - and unusual - the defendant realised as soon as he had done this, ‘This isn’t right, I shouldn’t have done that’.

“So he took himself to the police. He telephoned the police and said, ‘I think I have done wrong’.”

Mr Sorrell said that Monaghan has autism and is therefore unable to work, but said he aimed to “put his mistake right”.

Magistrates agreed that he had demonstrated “clear remorse”, and handed him an 18-month conditional discharge.

They also imposed an 18-month restraining order which will prevent him from contacting the victim in any way, while he will pay a £26 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.