A FALMOUTH father has been sent to prison for three months after breaching a civil injunction for anti-social behaviour.

Thomas Stephen Opie, aged 25, of no fixed abode, was sentenced today after admitting five breaches of the order, which prohibited him from entering certain areas of Falmouth. 

Jordan Quick, aged 18, also of no fixed abode, was alongside him in the dock at Truro Crown Court, having admitted the same breaches, but he was given a £250 fine by Judge Simon Carr.

Prosecuting, Katie Churcher briefly explained the breaches, which took place since the injunction was imposed on Opie, who has three previous convictions for a total of 11 offences.

Defending Opie, who had breached the order for a second time, Emma Cross said they mainly related to being in places that the men shouldn't have been, as set out by the injunction.

She said that between 2009 and 2019 he had not committed an offence, but after his brother was investigated for sexual offences there was a "degree of hostility" towards him from local residents, both in person and online.

That relationship with residents in Falmouth's Old Hill continued to deteriorate and it was then that his public order offences increased.

Some of the breaches, which were caught on CCTV, involved both men going to the Texaco garage in Penryn to "seek safety" when the nearby caravan in which they were living had come under attack.

She described Opie as an "extremely troubled young man" with poor mental and physical health, self-harming on several occasions.

She added that the father-of-one, who has another child due to be born in March, has sought help from outreach workers and had gone on a self-imposed detox in the last 24 hours, such was his concern about the outcome of the hearing.

Defending Quick, Emily Cook described him as a "vulnerable young man" whose family was "chaotic".

He had ended up living with Opie after his own family had disowned him and made threats towards him.

She added that Opie was the only adult that supported him apart from another man, who lived in the exclusion zone made by the order.

In sentencing the two men, Judge Carr said their "appalling behaviour" had led to the injunction in the first place.

"You made it impossible for the people living next door to you or in the same street to have any quality of life."

He added that CCTV footage caught them breaching the order, something which they must have known, but did not care about.

Addressing Opie, the Judge added that he had already stood before him after the first breach a short time ago and had made a promise not break it, which he had not kept.

Opie was jailed for three months while Quick was fined £50 for each of the five breaches - giving a total of £250.