Jealous Alfie King sent a “love” text to his ex-sweetheart Katie May that read: “I love you.”

But his declaration of affection came with a photograph of a gloved hand holding a double-barrelled shotgun.

Judge Adele Williams told the 25-year-old: "That was totally unacceptable conduct. It is a particularly aggravated form of harassment. This wasn't just text messages and phone calls, it was a rather specific type of threat."

King, who is already serving a 30-month jail term for kidnapping and causing GBH, has been given another year’s jail sentence after admitting harassment and causing criminal damage.

Canterbury Crown Court heard King, of The Chennells, High Halden, near Ashford, had been in a relationship with mother-of-one Ms May for two years.

Prosecutor Trevor Wright said: “In April last year the relationship ended - not, it has to be said, because he was violent but problems arose when he went to prison and she found the stress too much.”

He said the two parted and Ms May heard “very little from him” and then began a relationship with a new boyfriend, George Lambert.

Two months later she received several 'missed' telephone calls from King which she ignored “wanting him to leave her alone so she could get on with her life, “ added the prosecutor.

The court heard despite that, she agreed to meet King when he was freed from jail and “got very drunk at the County Hotel in Ashford” and later the two had sex.

In July, King texted her: “Your mine, y u hanging up on me” which was followed by a picture message of a gloved hand with the weapon and the words “I love you”.

Mr Wright said that despite being told to stay away, he sent a disgusting picture of his penis and then threatened to send a compromising video of her to her family.

But he did send a copy to Mr Lambert “as an extreme act, in an attempt to ruin the relationship she had formed,” said Mr Wright.

The court also heard how he went to her home and smashed a wooden photo frame of her new boyfriend and sent a copy of his photograph to her by mobile phone.

Mr Wright said: “King is a man motivated by an all consuming jealousy because Ms May had started a new relationship with Mr Lambert.

“It is a case of King not being able to let go. If he couldn’t have her then no-one could.”

The court heard how a few months ago the victim wrote to King's lawyers saying she wanted withdraw her support for the prosecution - claiming she didn't regard it as serious.

David Nicholls, defending, said there had been no history of violence between the couple and "accepts that what he did was wrong and has now shown considerable remorse."

But Judge Williams issued a two-year restraining order prohibiting King from contacting his ex.

The harassment and criminal damage offences happened while he was on bail awaiting trial for kidnapping. He was due to be released in January but now the judge has ordered the year sentence to run consecutively.

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