A MAN who harassed his ex-girlfriend after they split up was told by a judge: "Everybody gets binned – live with it."

Michael Warren bombarded the woman with phone calls and text messages for four weeks and threatened to slit her throat when they bumped into each other at a bus station.

The 33-year-old was described as violent and controlling by his former partner during their year-long relationship, which ended in May 2017.

At one point when they were together, Warren threatened the woman with a knife, prosecutor Paul Newcombe told Teesside Crown Court.

Mr Newcombe said the calls and texts were "constant" and he also used social media in his "barrage of contacts".

Even a plea from the victim's mother to Warren to stop, failed to persuade him to give up.

On June 2, he saw his ex at Middlesbrough bus station, shouted abuse at her, and asked when she was going to call to collect her belongings.

The woman was so afraid, she rang a friend to meet her, Mr Newcombe told Judge Sean Morris.

He added: "He was so angry, he threatened to slit her throat. She was so frightened she just got an any bus, not one that was going in her direction.

"He stared at her through the window and ran his finger across his neck in a gesture clearly relating to his earlier threat."

Warren was not charged by police, but in November last year after seeing her through a window at Yates's in Middlesbrough town centre, he followed his former partner when she left with her mother.

In a statement, the victim said: "I am depressed and fed up and just want to move on with my life, but he won't let me."

Andrew Turton, mitigating, told the court: "His probation report indicates that he is over it, although that will be no comfort for the injured party.

"He says he has moved on, and hopefully the complainant can, too. This was an outpouring of emotion. They were foolish comments."

Warren, of Avondale Close, Middlesbrough, admitted harassment and making a threat to kill, and was given a 22-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, with 150 hours of unpaid community work and 20 days' rehabilitation activity.

Judge Morris told him: "You just would not let it lie, and you constantly harangued her over the internet and on the phone.

"It is a form of mental torture.

"When, by chance, you saw her at a bus station, you made some very nasty threats.

"Everybody gets binned – live with it.

"It has to be a suspended sentence, so you know what you are looking at if you breach it or commit a further offence in the next two years."