AN ex-boyfriend who had an arsenal of weapons in his car when he was arrested for harassing his former girlfriend has been jailed.

Steven High bombarded the woman with messages including threats, despite her asking him to stop and blocking him from her social media, said Michael Cahill, prosecuting.

She didn’t believe he meant the threats, Mr Cahill added. He also waited outside her Malton home standing smoking or sitting in his car texting her.

Eventually she contacted the police and they arrested him in his car where they found three knives, including a hunting knife and a lock knife. There were also a knuckleduster and an extendable baton in the vehicle.

“What you effectively did was stalking your ex-partner,” the Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, told High at York Crown Court.

“That is serious enough in itself. Coupled with that arsenal of weapons .... these offences are so serious in my judgement that only a custodial sentence could be justified.”

He jailed High for 16 months and made a restraining order, banning him indefinitely from contacting his ex-girlfriend in any way.

High, 44, of Beverley Road, Norton, pleaded guilty to harassment and five charges of possessing weapons or knives in public.

In mitigation, Abbi Whelan said he had taken to drink and drugs as he struggled to cope with the death of his mother four years earlier.

When the relationship with his ex-girlfriend broke down, that “sent him off the rails” and he couldn’t cope with it, she said.

He had not used any weapons or brandished them in public. His ex-wife for ten years and other family members were in court to support him.

Mr Cahill said High and the ex-girlfriend had been in a relationship for five years until it broke up on December 10.

High sent the woman up to 80 messages a day.

On December 16, he went to her home twice and she told him to go away. That evening, in a confrontation when she was driving along Scarborough Road, he told her male passenger she was “playing head games”.