A young father breached a restraining order within five days of it being made by harassing his ex-girlfriend, and then burgling her home late at night, a court heard.

On June 25, Luke Chawla was banned from contacting the woman and going to her Sittingbourne house.

But she was in the town on June 30 when the 20-year-old approached her and a friend and asked to talk.

Prosecutor Tetteh Turkson said the woman was frightened and retreated into the snooker club in the High Street.

Chawla followed and made threats to kill her, saying he would have her cut up in pieces and thrown into a river.

“I am capable of killing people,” he added. “I don’t care if I go back to prison.”

Chawla was later arrested but while on bail on July 6 he broke into the woman’s home, where she lived with their young daughter and her parents.

Mr Turkson said just before midnight the woman’s father went downstairs and saw the porch door was open.

He found that mobile phones belonging to him and his wife were missing along with some DVDs.

By taking the phones Chawla was able to retrieve his ex-girlfriend’s new number and call her.

His fingerprints were found in the porch and he was arrested.

Now Chawler, of no fixed address, has been sentenced to two-and-half years youth custody.

He admitted burglary and breaching the restraining order and a suspended sentence, imposed for assault when he punched the woman in the stomach while she was pregnant.

Mr Turkson requested that Chawler be banned from Sittingbourne but Judge Michael Carroll continued the original restraining order.

The judge told him: “I can see no mitigation whatsoever as far as your behaviour is concerned. You are not prepared to accept you have done anything wrong until it is too late.

“If the court makes an order for [his victim’s] protection and you breach it, action is going to be taken. This court will have no hesitation in taking that action.”

Chawla was sentenced to two years for the burglary, one year concurrent for breaching the restraining order and the suspended sentence of 182 days was activated.

The woman told in a statement to Maidstone Crown Court how she was petrified of Chawla.