‘I hope you die’: Daventry man’s barrage of threatening texts and harassment towards ex partner

A Daventry man has been handed a suspended prison sentence for a string of offences including the harassment of his former partner and dangerous driving.

Damion Andrew Carvell, aged 28, of Heamans Road appeared at Northampton Crown Court on Thursday (May 5) after pleading guilty to assault, harassment, criminal damage, dangerous driving and possession of Class A drugs.

The court heard that all offences took place on March 8, 2022 two weeks after Carvell and his former partner of three years split up. Carvell’s former partner described his behaviour as “increasingly paranoid,” which she put down to his cocaine use.

Lucia Harrington, prosecuting, said Carvell banged on the door of his former partner’s address demanding to be let in before he “burst” through the door, shouting “there’s someone else in the house.”

Carvell proceeded to call his former partner derogatory names and threatened to “beat up” two men he accused her of sleeping with, the court heard.

Carvell’s behaviour was described to the court as “physically intimidating” before he left, called her 52 times in three hours and sent her a barrage of threatening texts saying, “I hope you die”; “you are a bad mother”; “the police can’t protect you” and “you are going to end up in a body bag.”

Witnesses described Carvell as “hysterical” as he smashed the windows of the victim’s van - causing a total of £2,500 in criminal damage - and drove past her house on his quad bike, shouting threats.

The police were called and officers located Carvell riding his quad bike on the A45 towards Wootton, overtaking other cars.

The court heard that Carvell tore through 30mph village roads at speeds of up to 70mph with police activating emergency lights and pursuing him. Carvell then “braked very hard,” made a sharp turn and overtook a car on a narrow country lane, almost losing his balance on the bike.

Officers tracked Carvell down 30 minutes later at a caravan site and arrested him.

The court heard that Carvell has five previous convictions dating from 2016 to 2020 including assault occasioning actual bodily harm against another former partner, the breach of a restraining order, criminal damage and harassment.

Paul Webb, defending, told the court that Carvell left home at the age of 16 after being subjected to emotional abuse and a general practitioner reported that Carvell suffers from a number of mental health issues that make him “act impulsively” and “become easily overwhelmed.”

Mr Webb said Carvell’s cocaine use “did not help his behaviour at all” and he has since expressed “significant remorse” and “moved on” from the relationship.

Miss Recorder Levett told the defendant: “You subjected her to a torrent of abuse brought on by your lack of maturity and drug abuse.”

She added: “It is very unfortunate the way you behaved and it must have been extremely terrifying for the complainant.”

Carvell was sentenced to six months imprisonment for harassment, four months for dangerous driving and one month for criminal damage to be served concurrently and suspended for 20 months.

He was additionally ordered to undertake 30 rehabilitation requirement days and 150 hours of unpaid work.