AN ex-boyfriend who repeatedly threatened his former partner had five weapons on him when police arrested him, York Magistrates Court heard.

The weapons included three knives, said Kathryn Reeve, prosecuting.

She said Steven High bombarded his ex-girlfriend with 80 text messages a day, some of them threatening, and

waited outside her Malton house smoking.

“She didn’t feel the defendant would go through with the threats, but the volume of the text messages was draining the life out of her,” said Ms Reeve.

After he ignored repeated requests to stop contacting her or going to her house, she told him she would make a formal statement to the police, and did so.

Police found him in his car with an extendable baton in his waistband and two lock knives, a hunting knife and a knuckleduster in the passenger footwell.

District judge Adrian Lower said the case was too serious for him to deal with and sent it for sentence to York Crown Court where High will appear on January 18.

High, 44, of Beverley Road, Norton, pleaded guilty to harassment between December 10 and December 17, two charges of possession of offensive weapons and three of carrying knives in public.

Police had initially released him on bail with a condition not to contact his ex-girlfriend, but three hours after leaving the police station, High posted a letter to her through her letterbox, said Ms Reeve.

For High, Kaitlin Whelan said he hadn’t appreciated the seriousness of breaching bail conditions.

“He has now spent Christmas in Hull Prison, which has been a very significant warning to him on what happens if you breach your bail,” she said.

High was struggling to come to terms with the end of the relationship.

She urged the district judge to release High on bail and said he could live with his father on County Durham away from his former girlfriend.

But the district judge remanded him in custody.

He also asked probation officers to prepare a report on High for the judge who sentences him.