A MAN has been fitted with a tracker device after he attacked his former girlfriend in a jealous rage and defied a court order to stay away from her.
Michael Ventre was subject to a non-molestation order but broke it when he suspected his ex was seeing someone else and went looking for her in a flat in Exeter.
He found her hiding in a cupboard in terror and pulled her hair before hitting her all over her face and body, leaving her covered in bruises. She was so terrified that she fled outside in bare feet and sought refuge with neighbours.
She moved from Exeter to Crediton to get away from him but was horrified to see him waiting outside the Wetherspoons pub while she was shopping. She fled into Tesco but he followed her and came within inches of her.
Ventre, aged 32, of Colway Lane, Chudleigh, admitted battery and two breaches of a non-molestation order and was sent on a 35-session Building Better Relationships programme by Judge David Evans at Exeter Crown Court.
He was also ordered to wear a tracking tag for four months and pay £340 costs. A new three year restraining order bans any further contact with the victim.
The judge told him: ‘You sought her out as a result of sexual jealousy. In my judgment, this is one of the worst battery offences I have seen before this court and is just short of the more serious offence of causing actual bodily harm.
‘You need to have your attitude towards future partners changed radically for the better and to learn how to control you temper and treat your partners as equals and with proper humility and respect.’
Mr Tom Faulkner, prosecuting, said the attack on his ex-partner happened when she was at a flat in Exeter on September 11 this year and Ventre confronted her.
She tried to hide in a cupboard but he found her and pulled her out by her hair before slapping her face and punching her body repeatedly.
He put his hand around her throat and she pretended to pass out to stop him strangling her.
She fled barefoot and moved out of Exeter to Crediton to get away from him but then found him waiting outside a pub as she got off a bus.
She took refuge in the nearby Tesco but he followed her inside, later sending her an e-mail about the encounter.
Mr Martin Salloway, defending, said Ventre is keen to work with probation to address his behaviour and attitudes.
He is happy to cooperate in the fitting of a tag and understands it will give his ex-partner some peace of mind.