Callum Walker, Perranporth sentenced for harassment

Callum Walker, 30, from Perranporth appeared at Truro Crown Court yesterday for sentencing after pleading guilty to harassing his former partner.

He obsessively scrolled though her mobile phone and assaulted her. After they split up he followed her on a night out and even went into her place of work to find her while she hid in an office.

Nick Lewin prosecuting told the court the pair had been seeing each other on and off since July 2022 but in Oct and Nov 22 there were concerns over his mental health.

On October 18 she had been staying with him at his home and he had been drinking all night and had not gone to sleep. He was checking on her mobile phone as it seemed to be a theme of his that she was supposedly 'cheating on him', seeing other people or messaging other people.

“As a result she slept in the spare room,” said Mr Lewin. “Walker came in and out of the room shouting at her and being abusive.”

He said in the morning she was getting herself ready for work when she noticed his attitude turn particularly nasty. She packed her belongings to leave but he took them from her and threw them outside.

“She was wearing clothes belonging to him and he threw her around the room by her trousers hitting the floor multiple times,” said Mr Lewin.

“She was crying and shouting ‘stop’ as he did this but he carried on, stopping to remove clothes leaving her in just her underwear before dragging her outside.

“He left her outside and locked the door. He was seen wandering in and out of the room inside several times then eventually further assaulted her, picked her up and threw her on the sofa.

“She turned to see him hanging from the ceiling attempting to use electrical wire as a noose.”

She got scissors and cut him down and Walker seemed to recover.

On November 17, after a meal, his mood changed and he started talking about various people and apps and seemed irritated and agitated.

“Anticipating a repeat she packed her hair straighteners to leave. He came up behind her and wrapped the electrical cable around here wrist several times to prevent her from packing,” said Mr Lewin.

It was tight and painful and a large bruise developed immediately, he said.

The next morning he took her phone and car keys from her, telling her she wasn’t having them back and then locked her in his house and drove off.

He returned 20 mins later with a bottle of rum shouting and accusing her of messaging men.

“He started scrolling through her phone,” said Mr Lewin. “She followed him to try and get her phone and he grabbed her by her jumper and threw her against the wall.

“She elbowed him and it appeared to shock him and he started to cry and apologise to her.”

Throughout November he tried to text and call her multiple times through various sources. She blocked him because the messages were “aggressive and threatening”.

“He turned up at her work and she saw him walking across the car park,” said Mr Lewin. “She was hiding in an office and didn’t leave until he had gone. She could see him on CCTV walking around the staff room looking for her even though it was for staff only.”

He was arrested and released with bail conditions not to contact her directly or indirectly. Despite this, on the November 26 the woman was out enjoying a night out with friends when he approached her and she burst into tears.

He appeared to follow her to a nightclub and approached her and her friends and at one stage he grabbed one of the male friends and pinned him by the chest to the wall, shouting and being abusive, accusing her of having a relationship with him.

“That developed into an ugly brawl in the reception of the club,” said Mr Lewin.

She was eventually forced to move away from the area because of his behaviour.

When he was arrested Walker claimed she was violent towards him and he’d restrained her in self-defence.

He said on November 26 he was concerned about who she was socialising with and had gone to the hotel where, he claimed, he was attacked and acted only to defend himself.

In a letter expressing his remorse for what he had done he said he was undergoing mental health and alcohol dependency treatment.

He said he recognised he was obsessive and jealous at times and pleaded for assistance. He blamed his alcohol consumption and said he would never contact her again.

He had been in custody for two months.

Sentencing Walker to two years in prison suspended for two years, Judge Simon Carr said what Walker had done was “truly chilling” but he saw a chance for redemption.

“You pleaded guilty at the first opportunity to a single charge of harassment the circumstances of which are truly chilling,” he said.

“For a period of six months last year you terrified, what was by then, your former partner. You followed her to work, you checked her phone you turned up when she wasn’t expecting. On two occasions you subjected her to sustained and violent assaults. She was terrified by what you might do.”

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He praised the former partner for still showing concern for his mental health despite what he had done to her.

He said positive reports on his progress and his previous good character meant that he would not stay in prison.

Walker was given two years suspended for two years and attached to that would be an alcohol treatment requirement for a period of six months and a mental health treatment for a period of 12 sessions, as well as a rehabilitation requirement of up to 25 days for a period of two years.

He was ordered to return to live with his parents, who were in court, at their farm in Perranporth under a curfew between 6pm and 6am for the next three months.

The judge also made him the subject of a ten year restraining order not to contact his former partner at all and not to go to West Cornwall Shopping Centre in Hayle.