A HOMELESS alcoholic with a history of not complying with court orders for previous offences has been jailed for 25 weeks by magistrates in Swindon.

Joseph James McGlaughlin, 27, of no fixed address in Swindon, appeared before the magistrates on Monday for breaching the conditions of a suspended sentence order, to which he pleaded guilty.

He also pleaded guilty to failing to comply with the notification requirements as a sex offender and to assaulting a former girlfriend.

Prosecutor Vyvyan Thatcher told the bench that McGlaughlin was placed on the sex offenders register for seven years in July 2014, when he was also sentenced to six months in prison.

After release from jail he was required to attend regular weekly appointments with the police, the probation service and Swindon’s drug and alcohol service CGL.

He had missed the appointments many times, Mr Thatcher said, mainly due to the fact that his mobile phone had died and he did not know where and when he was supposed to be.

On May 26 this year McGlaughlin went to his girlfriend’s address in Royal Wootton Bassett where they argued. To stop her leaving McGlaughlin grabbed her round the throat.

The police were called and when they arrived McGlaughlin was holding a knife to his own throat, threatening to kill himself.

A report from the probation service said the suspended sentence order had been imposed for theft and assault offences and for a breach of the sex offenders order.

The breach he admitted on Monday was the third breach of the order and probation felt there was willfull non-compliance. They recommended 14 days in custody.

McGlaughlin had attended no alcohol treatment sessions to date, probation said, missing nine. There had also been two incidents of self-harming this year during both of which he had called the police, on one occasion sparking a helicopter manhunt.

Defence solicitor Emma Thacker told the magistrates McGlaughlin was homeless and had complex mental health issues. He wanted somewhere stable to live but something always happened.

“It is very hard for him to manage his life in general. He wants out,” Ms Thacker said, adding that McGlaughlin now had a significant problem with his leg where he had been injecting drugs.

At this point McGlaughlin shouted from the dock: “I don’t want to be on drugs any more.”

Bench chairman Mrs Crockett told McGlaughlin the magistrates were going to activate the suspended sentence order of nine weeks in custody with a further six weeks for breaching the order.

They imposed 10 more weeks custody for the assault, to run consecutively, making a total of 25 weeks in prison.

They issued an order restraining him for two years from any contact with his former girlfriend and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £80.