Jail for man who kicked ex's front door then urinated on the back door

William Robinson, 40, who repeatedly slept in his former partner’s shed despite being told to leave her alone, also broke into the house and left her kitchen in disarray.

In a victim personal statement, the woman said that things had been ‘much better’ since her former partner was remanded in prison by the magistrates in December.

She could ‘finally have the life I deserve’, she said. “Little things like putting up mirrors and pictures have now become something I enjoy doing, as I now no longer have to worry about them being destroyed.”

Alice Aubrey-Fletcher, prosecuting, told Oxford Crown Court that Robinson and the victim had been in a relationship for around two-and-a-half years until it ended last autumn.

His offending began on October 9 when, having left early from a night out in town, she refused to let him back into her home in Rookery Way, Bicester. He got in through the back door and, when she told him to get out, refused to leave.

He did leave the property eventually, but stayed in the garden shouting and swearing until she called the police.

Robinson returned later in the evening. He continued to shout and relieved himself on the back door.

On November 29 he was back at the house, ‘clearly intoxicated and demanding to be let in’. Ms Aubrey-Fletcher said: “When entry was refused he started kicking the door with such force he broke the locks. The door would not open at all.”

He got in through the back door and ‘went on a rampage’ in the kitchen, smashing glass jars and throwing a spice rack into the garden. He also kicked a hole in the garden fence.

The defendant was arrested on December 1 after a neighbour heard him making threats and demands for money. On that occasion, he was found in his ex-partner’s shed.

He was released on police bail. That did not stop him from going back to her house ‘within hours’ and put a letter through her door. “I know I’m not allowed to contact you, but I really don’t care,” he wrote – apologising for what he had done and asking her to meet him the next day.

Robinson spent the night of December 2 sleeping in his ex-partner’s shed.

 She saw him walk past her home the following day and, in the early hours of December 4, he tried to push his way into the house but was stopped by his former girlfriend’s friend.

The defendant, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to burglary with intent to commit damage, harassment, criminal damage and threatening behaviour.

Peter du Feu, mitigating, said his client had struggled with alcoholism. A trained chef, he managed to stay out of trouble for more than a decade, when he was living in the north of England, was in a stable relationship and working in a job he loved. He had then returned to Oxfordshire.

Sentencing him to 16 months, Judge Ian Pringle KC said Robinson’s record showed that he had ‘the willpower to conquer that addiction that you’ve got and I’m sure that you will’.

But he said the only appropriate sentence was immediate imprisonment: “Domestic violence of this sort is totally unacceptable.”

A restraining order bans him from contacting his victim indefinitely.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @t_seaward