Yarmouth man sentenced to four years for harassing his ex-spouse

A Yarmouth man has been given a four-year prison sentence for sending his former common-law spouse letters from jail. An act, the court has deemed, that constituted criminal harassment.

At the time he wrote the letters Eric Cromwell, 42, was serving a 10-month sentence for two previous convictions of criminally harassing the woman. He had also been sentenced on charges of damage to her property and being unlawfully in her house.

Since the fall of 2006, the accused has had numerous convictions involving the same woman, which includes breach convictions and charges of assault. In a Kentville courtroom, Crown attorney Ingrid Brodie said the victim wants no contact with Cromwell, is scared for her safety and considered the letters to be threatening.

The defence, who claimed the letters were not threatening, said Cromwell wrote the letters to express his love for the woman and their children, and to also tell them he was a changed man.

But Judge Claudine MacDonald said the letters showed Cromwell’s unwillingness to accept that his ex does not want him communicating with her at all.

Being given credit for the five months he spent in custody after the charges were laid reduced Cromwell’s sentence to 38 months.

The Crown had been seeking a sentence of five to seven years.