A man breached a restraining order when he sent abusive Snapchat messages to his ex-partner threatening to slit the throats of their children, a court has heard.

Thomas McKee also called one of his kids a “ginger ugly little b*****d” during the tirade of harassing behaviour in February this year.

Preston Crown Court heard that in 2020, McKee, 30, had been handed a five-year restraining order which prohibited him from contacting his ex-partner.

However, in February he contacted a friend of his former partner’s asking to speak with her.

Prosecuting, Stephen Parker said: “He then tried to contact her mother, and then at 6pm made a call to her from an unknown number, which she answered.

“He began shouting down the phone at her, saying ‘if I call you, you pick up the f***ing phone, who do you think you are?’.

“She hung up and he tried to call back, and then he sent her abusive messages via Snapchat, which included abuse directed towards their children, with one message saying he would slit the children’s throats.”

Messages shown and played in court revealed McKee also made threats to his ex-partner, and in one voice note he said: “You’ve embarrassed me and you will get the consequences, I will smash your windows.

“I don’t care about the kids anymore, or you. Say sorry otherwise there’ll be consequences.

“I am going to flip and you are going to regret it.”

Mr Parker said in other messages, McKee called one of his own children a “ginger ugly little b*****d” and then said he was going to “kill the kids, slit their throats, does that make you happy?”.

Mr Parker went on: “His victim said the comments about the children made her worry about what he was capable of.”

In mitigation for McKee, Isabelle Haddad said her client was remorseful and felt deeply ashamed of his actions and wanted to apologise.

She said: “He had a turbulent relationship with the victim, who he has known for 10 years and with whom he shares two children.

“He was struggling to cope and he ‘lost it’.

“He accepts the messages were unpleasant but didn’t intend to act upon them.”

McKee, who has 16 convictions for 47 offences, many of which were of a similar nature and also involved his former partner, pleaded guilty to harassment and breach of a restraining order.

The Honorary Recorder of Preston, Judge Robert Altham, said: “The tone of your messages was horrible and during the course of this you called one of your own children a ‘ginger ugly little b*****d’.

“You have a bad record generally and a bad record specifically for this type of offending and this victim.”

McKee, of no fixed abode but who is from Accrington, was jailed for 13 months.