Michael Dennis Evans (Image: South Wales Police)
Last Updated: 2 hours ago
A 65-year-old man with a long history of ignoring court orders designed to protect former partners has been sent to prison after breaching a restraining order yet again.
Michael Dennis Evans, of Tower Gardens, Townhill, Swansea, was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to the breach.
A pattern of offending
Evans has 36 previous convictions spanning 67 offences – 23 of which relate to breaching restraining orders and harassment.
He has received custodial sentences for restraining order breaches in 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2023 – all relating to a different former partner.
In 2021, Evans repeatedly turned up at an ex-partner’s home in Gorseinon, shouting at the property and peering through the letter box. The behaviour forced the woman to leave her home and move in with friends. He was jailed for 30 months.
After his release from prison in December 2022, Evans bombarded the same victim with dozens of abusive and threatening phone messages, telling her he was going to kill her and saying if he could not have her then nobody could. He then blamed his victim, claiming she had been “winding me up”. He received 18 months in prison in September 2023 for that offending.
In June last year, Evans was convicted of stalking involving fear of violence in relation to his current victim. He was given a suspended prison sentence and made subject to a restraining order.
The breach
Prosecutor Caitlyn Jones told the court that on March 5 this year, the complainant and her housemate were at their home in Swansea when Evans knocked on the door asking to see her – in direct breach of the restraining order imposed in July last year.
The housemate told Evans he was not allowed to see the complainant and warned he would call the police. Evans responded by saying: “Police have got nothing on me.”
The complainant agreed to go for a walk with Evans, but when she had not returned after around 90 minutes the housemate grew concerned and contacted police.
Police response
Officers went to Evans’ address where he was “verbally abusive and aggressive”, but checks of the property confirmed the complainant was not present. Police then attended the complainant’s home and found she had returned. She disclosed that “in the rush of the moment” she had gone with Evans to his house in a taxi before making her way home. She said she did not want to see him.
When officers returned to Evans’ house, he began “shouting and swearing” at them, calling them “paedophiles” and accusing them of “working for Jeffrey Epstein”. He was arrested and answered “no comment” to most questions in interview, though he did say he would see his ex on occasions in Swansea Market.
Defence
Giles Hayes, representing Evans, said his client had been doing well on the suspended sentence imposed last summer but when the alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement came to an end he foolishly decided to go into town and “have a few drinks with friends” rather than stay sober. He acknowledged there had been some reluctance on Evans’ part to accept he had done anything wrong but said that at the age of 65 his client “quite clearly should have known better”.
Sentencing
Judge Paul Thomas KC said Evans had gone to his ex-partner’s house in a flagrant breach of the restraining order, and noted that the defendant had a tendency to portray himself as the victim.
Evans was sentenced to one month in prison for the restraining order breach. The judge also activated six months of the previously suspended sentence, to run consecutively – making a total sentence of seven months. He will serve 40% in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
