Ditched Southsea stalker jailed for tormenting ex-partner after throwing bottle in her face and storming address brandishing a machete

Southsea stalker Lee Knight, 20, was jailed for his campaign of terror on the woman after she called things off in April.

It prompted Knight to bombard the female with messages on June 23/24, including chilling warnings such as: ‘I’ll put a petrol bomb through your window.’

Portsmouth Crown Court heard how Knight, of Grosvenor Street, was arrested by police following his behaviour - before his ‘erratic’ actions in a cell saw him push an officer.

But despite being on conditional discharge, Knight upped his torment towards his ex-girlfriend and attacked her on July 23 having stalked her the evening before.

Prosecutor Alex Kettle-Williams said the defendant lashed out at the victim while she was with friends. ‘He threw a bottle which hit her in the face before the bottle smashed at her feet and glass hit her legs and feet,’ she said.

Then later that evening, Knight turned up at the address of his victim’s friend with three men while wearing a balaclava and tried to storm the property.

‘(Knight) ran at the communal door armed with a machete. There were threats he was going to kill her,’ the prosecutor said.

‘The communal door was kicked open before they tried to kick open the front door but the women had barricaded themselves in to stop it being opened.’

The men left before Knight returned on his own later but again failed to get in and left.

The victim, in a statement read out to court, said she suffers ‘fitting episodes due to stress brought on by Lee’ and now looks ‘over my shoulder’.

The court heard Knight has 39 previous offences to his name including for assaulting police, battery and public order.

The court heard he ‘struggled to come to terms’ with the end of the relationship and had a difficult childhood.

Judge William Ashworth jailed Knight for three and a half years for the ‘persistent and prolonged’ abuse ‘intended to maximise fear’.

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A 10-year restraining order was also handed out to Knight who was convicted of two counts of stalking, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, assault on an emergency worker, possessing an offensive weapon and affray.