GWENT Police have released the mugshot of a Caerphilly man who has been jailed after breaching a restraining order against his former partner by calling her a “slag”.

Andre Soroko, 36, was jailed for a total of 36 weeks at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday for harassment by breaching a restraining order and for committing an offence during the course of a suspended sentence.

A restraining order was put in place against Soroko after he was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm dating back to December 2020, where he hit his wife on the knee with a baseball bat. The court heard how the pair were now in the process of divorce.

Soroko was banned from contacting the complainant, except via email to make arrangements for their two children.

South Wales Argus: Andre Soroko was jailed for harassment after breaching a restraining order. Picture: Gwent Police.Andre Soroko was jailed for harassment after breaching a restraining order. Picture: Gwent Police. (Image: Gwent Police)

The first breach of the restraining order took place on the evening of May 29, prosecutor Christopher Evans said.

Soroko sent an email saying “Heard you was at The Lindsay last night with your boyfriend” to his ex-wife. The conversation between the two continued, and Soroko said: “Funny how I just had a missed call off the rat” and that his ex-wife was “a slag like everyone said you are”.

Mr Evans said that on June 1, the complainant received a series of calls from a withheld number. She identified Soroko as making the calls, and told him to stop.

On June 4, the complainant was at a local takeaway with her partner and two children. While her partner and daughter were inside the takeaway, she waited in the car with her six-year-old son.

Soroko “appeared”, Mr Evans said, and opened the car door. The prosecution alleged that Soroko shouted at his ex-wife “You are a slag and a rat” in front of their young child, but he denied saying that.

After an altercation with her partner, the police were called and Soroko was arrested.

The complainant told officers “the restraining order is not worth the paper it’s written on,” Mr Evans told the court.

Soroko has one previous conviction – the assault occasioning ABH – for which he was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

“He is the first to acknowledge how stupid he has been,” said Kevin Seal, in mitigation.

Mr Seal said that given the pair would be in contact two or three times a week to make childcare arrangements, and given their seven-year relationship history, it was “to their credit” that there had only been three breaches in the first seven months of the five-year restraining order.

However he said the conversations had been “two-way”.

“She also has taken part in breaches of the order,” he said.

“These are two individuals in their 30s who are acting well below their natural real ages as far as the children are concerned.”

Soroko, of Ruth Street in Bargoed, had pleaded guilty to a charge of harassment by breaching a restraining order, and was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison and ordered to pay a £156 victim surcharge.

For breaching the suspended sentence, Recorder Carl Harrison handed him a 12-week sentence, running consecutively.