Dad faces jail after breaching court order relating to estranged wife in Sunderland

A hot-headed dad who breached a court order by entering his estranged wife’s Sunderland home when prohibited could be jailed.

Magistrates told Garrith Brown, 43, their sentencing powers of one year’s custody were insufficient and instead sent him to be dealt with by a judge at crown court.

He went to her home on Thursday, January 4, to take their two children swimming in South Shields.

Brown, of Kellsway, Leam Lane, Gateshead, was permitted to approach the gate under the terms of a non-molestation order but to go no further.

But he let himself into the property after first causing a fuss by honking his car’s horn, prosecutor Bushra Begum told magistrates in South Tyneside.

Of a 999 call recording played to the court, Ms Bushra said Brown’s ex-partner could be heard telling police he had “sped off” with their six-year-old son.

Magistrates were told he also breached the order by attending a property the couple owned in Gateshead and where she was present with the youngsters on Saturday, March 23.

In another 999 call again reporting a breach, he could be heard with raised voice arguing with her, also while both children were present.

The order prohibits Brown using or threatening violence against the woman or being anywhere he knows her to be, except for child contact purposes.

Brown, who the court heard has 26 markers against him for suspected domestic abuse incidents, pleaded guilty to two counts of breaching a non-molestation order, having initially denied the first charge.

Defending himself, he admitted he had been wrong to attend either address but insisted he had not recklessly sped off with the couple’s son.

He also said he had been living at the second address and had discovered his ex-partner had moved herself and the children in while he was in hospital, making him homeless.

The court heard the couple ran a successful Sunderland-based property business until their break-up last year.

Magistrates granted Brown bail to be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on Thursday, May 9, on condition he does not contact his victim, does not go anywhere he knows her to be and resides at his home address.