A Macclesfield man who hacked his former girlfriend's email account so he could bombard her with abusive messages was told he had come close to being jailed.

Matthew Daniel Mycroft also smashed up a TV, vase and mirror during a row at Lynn Owen's flat in the town.

Magistrates Chairman Gwyneth Edwards told him his harassment of Ms Owen, which lasted over a month, was concerning, but that the bench were prepared to go along with a probation report's recommendation he be dealt with by a community sentence.

Mycroft, 31, of Red House, Masons Lane, Macclesfield pleaded guilty to harassment between 20 April and 25 May this year when he appeared at South Cheshire Magistrates' Court. He also admitted two counts of criminal damage, one on 4 March this year and the other on 25 May.

The defendant had been friendly with Ms Owen for five years before he struck up a short-term relationship, which ended in February this year

But prosecutor Alison Warburton said that on 4 March he went round to her home in Macclesfield and an argument flared in the lounge.

He was told to leave, but he picked up a candle holder and threw it towards her before throwing a Lego table and chair at the TV.

A vase next to the TV was also damaged and Mycroft's temper tantrum continued when he broke a mirror in the hallway as he left the flat.

The prosecutor said: "Ms Owen provided a statement to the police about her harassment. She said she was sent abusive messages by the defendant, receiving 60 a day after he hacked into her email account."

The court was told that Mycroft's messages included one wishing that his victim would "die in her sleep". Another read "I'm so close to coming up there and smashing all the f..ing windows".

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Ms Owen said: "It has left me feeling low and depressed. Every time I received a message from him there was a sinking feeling in my stomach. Friends have told me I look a nervous wreck."

Mycroft, who was unrepresented, told the court: "We would often send messages both ways. Neither of us behaved amicably, although I know that doesn't make what I did right."

Magistrates ordered Mycroft undertake 30 days of rehabilitation activities as part of a two-year community order as well as 150 hours of unpaid work.

They also told him to pay £250 to Ms Owen for the damage to her flat and placed him under a two-year restraining order not to contact his former girlfriend.

He also has to pay court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £95.

The magistrates' chairman told him: "You could well have gone to prison for this offence. It was quite serious."