'Sleep with one eye open': Jail for man who threatened former girlfriend

When David Ross Corfield's girlfriend broke up with him, he did not take it well.

Defence counsel Noel Rayner told the Dunedin District Court yesterday the 49-year-old Mosgiel man had found the abrupt end to the relationship hard to reconcile.

His text messages, over the course of a week in July and August last year, "started to get some intensity" as the victim refused to respond.

"That's an understatement," Judge Michael Turner said.

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The tirade, which was peppered with expletives, was read out in court.

"I can only hold myself back for so long," Corfield said at one point.

"Make peace with me or suffer the consequences."

Later he advised his ex-partner to "sleep with one eye open d***head."

On August 4, Corfield saw the victim driving and when she pulled up at her home, he opened the passenger door and got in beside her.

He leaned over and used his elbow and forearm to push the woman's head into the window.

She sounded the horn in a bid to get help and Corfield left.

His arrest, however, did not stop his intimidatory conduct.

When Corfield was arrested, charged and bailed by police, he posted a photo of his bail conditions to Facebook. The victim's name and address were clearly visible, the court heard.

Mr Rayner said his client made the post to inform his friends what had happened and had not designed it to further target the woman.

Judge Turner said he "struggled" with that explanation.

Corfield, he said, must have known the post would cause the victim further fears for her safety.

The defendant was serving a sentence of intensive supervision at the time of the offending and Judge Turner detailed his lengthy criminal history.

It featured more than a dozen assaults, as well as breaches of a protection order.

"You are a violent man," he said.

Mr Rayner said Corfield was focused on improving himself when he was released from prison and was planning to reconnect with Moana House, a rehabilitation facility where he had spent nearly two years in the past.

Corfield was convicted of dishonestly getting into a vehicle, assaulting a woman, intimidation, a breach of the Harmful Digital Communications Act and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

A protection order was made in favour of his victim.