A violent ex who launched a ‘campaign of terrorism’ against his former girlfriend has been jailed for four years.

Ricky Ousley, 22, threatened to shoot the woman and swamped her with messages and calls.

The Oxford man, who has a previous conviction for harassing an ex-girlfriend, also kicked the mum-of-two so hard he broke her leg and battered her car while the terrified woman and her three-year-old daughter were in the vehicle.

In a victim personal statement read to Oxford Crown Court by prosecutor Christopher Pembridge, the woman charted the significant impact Ousley’s campaign of harassment and violence had had on her and her family.

“I don’t know if and when I will feel like myself again,” she said, adding that she had suffered nightmares about what had happened.

Ousley began a relationship with his victim in late 2019, the court heard. It only lasted a few months, ending in early 2020.

He began hanging around her home and shouting verbal abuse. In March she allowed him in so he could retrieve some of his belongings.

The court heard he had kicked her in the leg with such force he left her with a closed fracture. She went to the hospital but claimed she’d suffered the injury falling over when mowing the lawn. Her former partner had followed her to hospital.

Between May and October 2020, he bombarded her with abusive messages and calls. They included a threat that he would ‘come with a gun and blow your head off’.

On August 13 she was in her car with her young daughter when Ousley hammered on the bodywork.

Jailing him for four years on Friday afternoon, Judge Maria Lamb said: “You embarked upon what can only be described as a campaign of terrorism on this young woman through email and messages as well as presence at her address.

“You threatened to post intimate pictures of her on social media. You left multiple unpleasant voicemails, you said terrible things to her about her recently deceased grandparent.

You were in your harassment of her persistent and it was frequent and the voicemails and the threats continued for month after month.

“There were references to guns and bullets, there were explicit threats of violence to her, threats to kill her and threats to harm and do worse to any new partner she may have.”

Ousley, of Sandy Lane, Oxford, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to harassment causing fear of violence. He was convicted after trial of causing actual bodily harm and criminal damage, later losing an appeal against his conviction for ABH.

Richard Davies, mitigating, said his client was young and had been diagnosed with an emotionally unstable personality disorder. He was supported by his family, to whom he had also offered support.

Judge Lamb imposed a lifelong restraining order banning Ousley from contacting his victim or going within 200m of any property where he believes her to be living.

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