A homeless man who told “a sob story” to manipulate a former partner into letting him stay with her has been jailed for punching her during an argument.

Bradford Crown Court heard that 43-year-old Dean Taylor had already breached a restraining order several times when he contacted her last year and asked for help.

He was also facing a suspended sentence imposed just a month before he committed the breach.

Prosecutor Nicola Hoskins said Taylor and the woman had been in a “turbulent” on-off relationship that ended in 2021 after he was convicted of hitting her with a hammer and smashing up her home.

But she let him back into her home last November after feeling sorry for him as he said he was homeless and sleeping rough.

Taylor, of HMP Leeds and with links to the Mixenden area of Halifax, stayed with the woman for the next ten days, but she was frightened of him and felt she “could not require him to leave”.

On November 17, they had an argument that resulted in Taylor punching her in the face and biting her. The police were called and he was arrested. He has been in custody at HMP Leeds since November 20.

After initially denying assault Taylor pleaded guilty to battery a week before the case was due to go to trial.

Mitigating, Saf Salam conceded that Taylor had committed a serious breach of the order but that he was in the woman’s home at her invitation. He said Taylor now fully accepted that their relationship was over.

Sentencing Taylor to a total of 11 months in prison Mr Recorder David Kelly said what might have been considered to be a single incident was significantly aggravated by the breach of the restraining order and the presence of the suspended sentence.

He said: “The breach of restraining order, which you’ve admitted, effectively was telephoning her and basically telling her a sob story, which made her take pity on you.

“You succeeded in that, and she invited you to go and stay with her. I have no doubt that the invitation was a result of your emotional manipulation of her.

“The assault isn’t simply an aggravating feature of the breach. It is a separate piece of criminality on your part. There is no alternative but a custodial sentence.”