A MAN continued to harass his ex-partner despite being subject to a restraining order and a suspended prison sentence.

Blackburn magistrates heard Ismaeel Hussain took her car and house keys after approaching her car as she took their daughter to school.

He tried to let himself into her home later the same day but she had already arranged for the locks to be changed.

Hussain, 28, of Beaufort Street, Nelson, pleaded guilty to criminal damage and three charges of breaching a restraining order. He was committed in custody to Burnley Crown Court to be sentenced on August 2.

Adrian Hollanby, prosecuting, said the defendant approached his former partner in her car and asked if she was going to talk to him. She said no and he reached in and grabbed her keys from the ignition.

Later that afternoon he turned up at her home and tried to let himself in. When he realised the lock had been changed he smashed a kitchen window.

He called her mobile and said she was going to get what was coming to her and he was going to smash the rest of her windows.

"He said this was just the start," said Mr Hollanby.

Keith Rennison, defending, said it had been a chance encounter which led to his client doing something extremely stupid.