A man has been jailed for a year after breaking into a woman’s home in Eltham and then calling her 32 times in half an hour.
Jack Keegan, 33, pleaded guilty to harassing the woman between September 8 and September 18. He was sentenced at Bromley Magistrates’ Court on October 30.
Court documents state that on September 8, Keegan used violence to break into the victim’s home.
Ten days later, he called her 32 times in just 30 minutes and sent her threatening and abusive messages.
Magistrates concluded that a prison sentence was necessary because of the “serious and unprovoked” nature of the attack.
Harassment covers a course of conduct that causes another person alarm or distress, and courts can impose a custodial sentence where the behaviour is serious enough. A guilty plea is taken into account at sentencing, but it does not remove the need for a prison term where magistrates find the offending crosses the custody threshold.
Anyone experiencing harassment can report it to the police on 101, or on 999 in an emergency. The National Stalking Helpline also offers confidential advice and support to victims of stalking and harassment.
Eltham sits in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, which was recently named one of the UK’s best places to live for 2027. The case is the latest in a series of recent convictions at London courts, including the murder conviction of Leon Douglas at Harrow Crown Court this week.
