A MAN has pleaded guilty to sending his ex-wife more than 200 emails and messages “seeking to rekindle the marriage”.

Alun Bunney, of The Hawthorns in Sutton Courtenay near Abingdon, pleaded guilty to a charge of harassment without violence at Oxford Magistrates Court yesterday (September 22).

The court heard that the 48-year-old had sent a total of 217 messages to his ex-partner between April 10 and May 30 last year leading to a non-molestation order.

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Prosecuting, Richard Atkins said the messages ranged from asking for more contact with his children, aged six and nine, to attempts to “rekindle the marriage”.

For example, one message read: “We could make more great memories and wipe out the bad ones.”

However, other messages were directed to his ex-wife’s new partner. One read: “Try not to get pregnant, don’t need that p**** in my life when you get bored of him.”

The court heard the claimant had asked Bunney to stop messaging her and “told him it was harassment while referring to the Google term for harassment.”

Mr Atkins said: “217 messages is quite excessive. Some are on the guise of contacting the children but not all of them.”

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After the messages, a non-molestation order was put in place which is a type of injection that can be used against someone who is being harassing.

A friend of the claimant then acted as an intermediary between the married couple to arrange contact with the children.

However, the court heard a further 200 messages were sent to the friend by Bunney because “he knew who those messages were being passed to”.

Mr Atkins said: “The crown would say yes it was necessary to send messages to her as she was acting at the intermediary but messaging could have been shorter.

“They do not need to be long dialogue very much setting out Mr Bunney’s concerns in terms of contact and how he wants more contact. These messages were designed to be sent on.

“He wasn’t speaking to the intermediary because he knew who those messages were being passed on to.”

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Mitigating, Angela Porter said: “They had been married for 10 years and he then discovered his bestfriend had an affair with his wife and he felt a great sense of despair and betrayal.

“He accepts that his behaviour was over the top and it wasn’t right and he had hoped he would be able to salvage the marriage.”

His sentencing has been postponed until next month while the court waits for a pre-sentence report.

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This story was written by Gee Harland. She joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.

Gee covers Wallingford, Wantage and Didcot.

Get in touch with her by emailing: Gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @Geeharland

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