Stalker who hacked ex's emails jailed

Shane Taylor was jailed for stalking for three years and four months

A stalker who hacked his ex-partner's email account and bombarded her and her family with threatening messages has been jailed for more than three years.

Shane Taylor, 47 and from Jarrow, tormented his ex-partner and left her "living in fear", Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Many of the messages were sent while Taylor was working in Taiwan, the court heard.

He admitted stalking and was jailed for three years and four months.

The court heard Taylor made repeated threats that his ex-partner would go to jail or lose her children and told her family he would expose secrets about her between December and January.

As well as the messages, he also drove closely behind her on her way from home from a meal out with friends, the court heard.

In a statement read to the court, the woman said she was "living in constant fear both day and night" and his harassment was "disrupting" her life.

She said she felt "constantly on edge" and as thought she had to be on "high alert".

In mitigation, Jane Foley said the "unpleasant break up" had a "significant impact on all parties" and Taylor had also "lost everything", for which he was to blame.

Recorder Dapinder Singh KC said Taylor, of Durham Grove, had a "serious impact" on his ex-partner, who described herself as being an "emotional wreck".

The judge said "very serious distress and psychological harm" had been caused to the woman who had been forced to make "significant changes to her lifestyle".

An indefinite restraining order was also made.