Woman, 28, drove boyfriend to brink of suicide after bombarding him with 1,000 messages after he dumped her

A “TOXIC” lover who drove her ex to the brink of suicide has been smacked with a restraining order.

Spurned Michelle Felton bombarded Ryan Harley with up to 150 messages and calls every day after he dumped her.

The Specsavers optician’s assistant, 28, also sent over 1,000 text messages pleading her ex to get back with her.

In the torrent of texts, Felton, from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, would ask her ex: ”Why won’t you speak to me? I love you.

“Are we meeting tonight?’ Are we going out?’”

She even accused him of cheating in his driving test when he failed to reply.

Mr Harley, also from Ellesmere Port, eventually called the police when Felton began leaving gifts on his doorstep.

He told officers: ”I just want it to go away and for it all to stop. I just feel like ending it all’.”

Warrington magistrates court heard how the couple had a 21-month fling, in which Felton was controlling, before an argument exploded when Mr Harley told his ex it was over.

Arron Smith, prosecuting, said: “[Mr Harley] said that it had been toxic in his view. She did not agree with that.”

During the February 2021 argument, Mr Harley accidentally broke Felton’s finger before she kicked him in the groin.

The court heard Mr Harley was allegedly “smacking her [Felton] around the face with a sock” before grabbing her pinkie and accidentally breaking it.

In the five days after the fight, Mr Harley cared for Felton who avoided hospital to “avoid getting in trouble”, they then split.

But between February 15 and February 26 there was a constant barrage of messages from Felton which went without reply.

Despite none being threatening or abusive, Felton told her ex she “did not want to continue living” following the split.

Felton, unable to work for 12-days following the break, also sent photos of her and said that “he belongs to her”, Mr Smith added.

Felton’s messages, which caused Mr Harley “great harm and distress”, were complicated by uninvited visits to his home where she left gifts.

When a cop checked Mr Harley’s phone, body cam footage showed a “constant scrolling exercise of message after message after message”.

“As he was scrolling through them more texts and calls were coming through”, Mr Smith added.

The “voluminous messages and calls”, the court heard, meant Mr Harley would have suffered “some element of harassment”.

Felton later went under general anaesthetic at hospital to fix the finger, her defence said.

Sentencing JP Alan Eyres told Felton: “It’s a sad story but nevertheless here you are.”

Felton admitted harassment after her not guilty plea to coercive behaviour was accepted by prosecutors.

She was banned from contacting Mr Harley for 18 months and sentenced to an 18-month community order with a requirement she participates with 30 days of rehabilitative activity.

She was also fined £50 and ordered to pay costs and a victim surcharge of £395.