Firefighter given restraining order

Paul Dixon

OLDHAM firefighter Paul Dixon was given a two-year restraining order by magistrates after he admitted harassing a former partner.

The 48-year-old was sentenced for behaviour which involved sending text messages, making telephone calls, calling at her home and following her in a vehicle.

Oldham magistrates yesterday slapped him with a £350 fine, saying he had an “excellent employment record” of 20 years service with Greater Manchester Fire Service and after hearing it was a “one-off” which was unlikely to be repeated.

Warning
Chris Fallows, defending, told the court the action related to Dixon trying to get the key to his home back from his ex-partner, Rachel Stephens, before he went on holiday to Spain in March.

He and Miss Stephens had split up in January this year, and Dixon was given a harassment warning by police in March, which he refused to sign, saying he had done nothing wrong.

Dr Roger Woods, prosecuting, said Dixon’s actions involved him frightening Miss Stephens when he knocked on her back door in March, a text he sent insinuating he had been to her home, and knocking on her car window in a supermarket car park.

The following month, he left kitchen pots and cookbooks on her doorstep — a “symbolic act”, said Mr Fallows, which meant there would be no further contact.

He told the court that Dixon, of Arnside Avenue, Chadderton, now accepted his actions caused harassment to Miss Stephens, and had taken place after the relationship turned sour.

He said he was a diligent firefighter of good character who had only been before the courts once, 11 years ago, for a public-order offence.

Guilty
He was due to take part with his colleagues in a charity cycle from John O’Groats to Lands End in August.

Dixon, who has two children from a previous relationship, pleaded guilty to harassment without violence.

Conditions of the restraining order were that he must not enter Glebe Street, Chadderton, other than in the course of his duty as a firefighter, nor make contact with Rachel Stephens in any way.

He was also told to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.