'Serial' Leeds abuser forced woman to flee home after she rejected his advances
A woman beater jailed only last month for attacking a female has been handed a new jail sentence after stalking another who spurned his advances.
Cavan Ward viciously beat a woman in a hotel in Sheffield and received a 30-month stint behind bars in June.
This week he appeared at Leeds Crown Court where it was heard he turned nasty when another said she had no interest in starting a relationship with him.
Ward, 38, and the woman had been introduced by mutual friends earlier this year, had swapped text messages and had met up. He even bought gifts for her and her children, but they were not a couple, prosecutor Harry Crowson said.
Ward then asked several times to come to her address, but she rebuffed his advances. On March 19 he asked again but the woman was out with her children and did not respond.
She received numerous messages from Ward asking where she was, what she was doing, and worryingly questioned why she had liked certain posts on Facebook, before accusing her of lying.
She then tried to sever contact, telling him she was not attracted to him and did not want a relationship. He then began calling and messaging her “incessantly”, losing his temper.
He called her 173 times, leaving voice messages and sending texts.
She threatened to call the police, but Ward was undeterred, saying he was coming to her York home, so she went to the police.
But he continued to pester her, even sending her a map route from his home to her address. Out of fear, she was forced to live with friends.
Ward, of Trafford Grove, Harehills, later admitted a charge of stalking while causing serious alarm and distress, but only on the day he was due to stand trial. He has 10 previous convictions for 16 offences.
He has a harassment conviction towards another woman, and the violence he inflicted on a partner in a Sheffield hotel room in May last year. He dragged her to the floor and strangled her when she turned up late for their planned night away. Jailing him for 30 months for that crime , the judge called him a “serial domestic abuser”.
Mitigating for his latest offence, Marte Alnaes said that Ward suffered from borderline personality disorder and admitted he “has issues controlling himself” with ”bouts of problematic drugs and alcohol abuse”. But she said he was using his time in prison proactively.
The judge, Recorder Aisha Wadoodi told him: “There did not seem to be any degree of relationship between you, but despite that you persisted in harassing her repeatedly.
“You watched her Facebook to see what photographs she liked. She said she did not want to be in a relationship with you but that did not stop you. She did everything she could to tell you she was not interested.
“Your record is appalling and worrying. You knew exactly what you were doing when you pursued this woman.”
She gave him 16 months’ jail.