A 31-year- old who struggled to accept that his girlfriend had ended their relationship phoned her up to 20 times a day for weeks, a court was told.

Albert Conneely from Aughrismore, Cleggan, Co. Galway, pleaded guilty to harassing his former girlfriend, Kathleen Walsh, over several months last year.

Conneely also pleaded guilty to causing almost €600 worth of damage to Ms Walsh's car after she refused to return his calls.

Clifden District Court was told that the harassment only stopped after Ms Walsh contacted the Gardaí this time last year.

Supt. Tony O'Donnell said that when Ms Walsh refused to answer his calls or return his text messages, Conneely started ringing her parents' house.

He said that Conneely drove up beside Ms Walsh on 17 September last year and intimidated her. Later that month he scratched the doors of her car while she was at work. On another date, the air was let out of the tyres of her car.

Solicitor JJ Mannion said that the couple had been going out together for eight months and that Conneely had "difficulty" accepting the relationship was over. Conneely, who works in a glass factory in Castlebar, told Judge Mary Fahy that he now accepted the relationship was over.

Judge Fahy said that Conneely's behaviour was "outrageous" and it was totally unacceptable to involve Ms Walsh's parents. She said the last thing Ms Walsh would have wanted was her personal life being brought into the public domain.

Judge Fahy told Conneely he was looking at a prison sentence but gave him a month to pay the €600 compensation before she would make a decision to suspend any sentence. Conneely was remanded on continuing bail.

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