A HAKIN man has been sentenced for stalking his ex-partner to the point where she became fearful for her personal safety.

“I don’t know what he’s capable of,” Kirsty Braithwaite said in a personal victim statement read out to Haverfordwest magistrates this week.

“Scott Horton is unpredictable and won’t take no for an answer. I don’t want him at my address, but I’m scared he’ll turn up.”

The court was told that the relationship between the couple began to deteriorate in December 2023. The stalking commenced the following March.

“On March 8 the victim returned to her home at approximately 11pm and 40 minutes later she heard a car pulling up outside,” said Crown Prosecutor Abigail Jackson.

“She saw the defendant’s vehicle, and then saw him standing outside her living room window, and heard him say ‘I can’t believe you’ve done this to me’.”

Six days later the victim was contacted by a neighbour who informed her that CCTV footage showed the defendant standing outside her property in the early hours of the morning and again at 7am.

“He attended on three further occasions that day, which was March 14, and the victim notified the police about what had happened,” said Abigail Jackson.

“On numerous occasions she received unwanted contact from him concerning the breakdown of their relationship, including doorbell footage which showed him standing outside her house at 5am in the morning, creeping past the front door and ducking past her camera.”

Ms Jackson said Horton’s behaviour has left her fearful for her safety.

“He knows my normal routine and I’m scared,” Ms Braithwaite continued in her personal statement.

“I’ve had to change the locks on my doors and I’ve had to install a CCTV camera. I’m afraid to walk anywhere in case he approaches me and I’m frightened to go to work in case he sees me there.”

Horton, 42, of Harbour Way, Hakin, pleaded guilty to a charge of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.

He was sentenced to a 12 month community order during which he must carry out 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

He must also pay £250 compensation to Ms Braithwaite, £85 costs and a £114 surcharge. He will be subject to a daily electronic monitoring curfew between 10pm and 7am for three months.

PASSING a sea survival course has resulted in a custodial sentence for a Pembrokeshire fisherman after he admitted using threatening behaviour towards staff at the Silverdale homeless lodge.

Brandon Pugh was told earlier this month that he had successfully passed the sea survival course after serving an apprenticeship on a fishing boat operating from Neyland Marina.

But after drinking to excess to celebrate his success, Pugh returned to the Silverdale Lodg in Johnston, where he had been residing for the previous 24 hours.

“He was absolutely thrilled that he could finally see a future opening up before him,” his solicitor, Tom Lloyd, told Haverfordwest magistrates this week.

“So what did he do? He got intoxicated to the point where he couldn’t remember anything.”

Pugh reached Silverdale just before 1.30am on April 24, and confronted a female staff worker who believed he had taken a dislike to her during their meeting the previous day.

“She was typing up notes when she heard a knock on the door,” said Crown Prosecutor Abigail Jackson.

“She heard a male voice and recognised it as Brandon Pugh. She asked him to hold on while she waited for her colleague to come back as she didn’t feel comfortable engaging with the defendant on her own. She had met him only once, and didn’t think he liked her.”

But Pugh then began kicking the door whilst shouting, “I’m going to end you.”

“I took his threats literally, as his manner and demeanour made me feel uncomfortable,” said the Silverdale Lodge victim in a statement she made to the police.

“I felt that if he was going to open the door, he would harm me.”

The court was told by probation officer Julie Norman that the offence was committed whilst Pugh was the subject of a two-year suspended prison sentence for a common assault conviction in January 2023.

“There’s a pattern of violent offences here, with the result that I request he be sent to custody,” she said.

But solicitor Tom Lloyd urged magistrates to apply leniency in their sentence.

“His background is extremely troubled and he is an extremely vulnerable individual,” he said. “Since a very young age he’s been pushed into doing things that he didn’t want to do, and this has been the story of his life.

“At last he’s been given the chance to work on a fishing boat, things have gone very well, and this is the main reason he’s kept out of trouble.

“But that night he got very intoxicated and said things that he didn’t mean. He’s embarrassed by what happened.”

However after considering the mitigation, magistrates sentenced Pugh to 24 weeks in custody. He was also ordered to pay £239.

“Despite how it looks today, there is light at the end of the tunnel,” said presiding magistrate Mary Smith. “When you come out of custody you’ll be able to pick up the pieces and get on with your fishing career.”

A SELF-EMPLOYED Pembrokeshire builder has been ordered off the roads for 17 months after driving home from a friend after downing homebrew.

Timothy Parkes, 60, was followed by police officers after they received a tip-off from a member of the public concerned that Parkes may have consumed alcohol prior to driving his Mitsubishi L200.

“It was on the evening of April 17 when police were asked to keep observations on the defendant as a result of information they’d received that he may have been drinking alcohol,” Crown Prosecutor Abigail Jackson told Haverfordwest magistrates this week.

“The officers illuminated their lights but the defendant carried on driving. They then saw him pull into the driveway where the vehicle was registered, dump it and run into the yard area.”

Parkes, of Isfryn, Pontyglasier, was subsequently apprehended by the officers and a roadside breath test carried out which proved positive. He was conveyed to a police custody suite where two further intoximeter tests gave the lowest reading of 78mcg. The prescribed legal limit is 35.

Parkes who pleaded guilty to drink-driving, chose to legally represent himself when he appeared in the dock.

“I was a bit foolish,” he told the magistrates. “I went to see my friend who had had an accident at work and he was given some homebrew by friends, and I drank some. I didn’t know how strong the homebrew was, to be fair.”

Parkes informed magistrates that he is a self-employed builder.

“I live in the countryside so now I won’t be able to go to work,” he said.

After considering the mitigation, Parkes was disqualified from driving for 17 months. He was fined £230 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £92 court surcharge.