Wakefield addict who spent years tormenting sister for drug money returned to prison
A drug addict who refused to leave his sister alone was arrested just days after being released from prison.
The woman said she was forced to hide under her bed when Robert Ledger turned up at her home in Normanton.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Ledger is banned from contacting his sister because he would persistently badger her for money to feed his heroin and cocaine habit.
He was given the restraining order in 2021 and has breached it 18 times before, resulting in prison sentences.
He was released in December last year and having been left homeless, once again returned to the woman’s home.
He rang her doorbell at 6.45pm on December 15 and she saw him over the bell camera, so refused to answer and hid.
Ledger then walked around her garden and into her summer house.
The police were called and found the 48-year-old hiding under a blanket in the summer house.
She later found a letter written by Ledger, telling her he wished he had been a better brother and appreciated what she had done for him in the past.
Ledger gave a no-comment interview at the police station.
In a victim impact statement, read to the court, the woman said Ledger’s incessant contact had led to health problems.
Ledger, who appeared in court via video link from HMP Leeds, admitted another breach of his restraining order.
He has 30 previous convictions for 64 offences.
Mitigating, Christopher Morton said Ledger’s sister was his only remaining family.
He said Ledger had a long-standing drug addictions, but had got clean before being released on December 9 last year.
However, he was taken ill almost immediately, and was hospitalised in Sheffield suffering from viral pneumonia.
Released on December 14, he said it was cold and wet, so in desperation travelled to his sister’s home.
Judge Howard Crowson jailed Ledger for another 18 months and told him: “You were fully aware you should not be there. It was a deliberate breach.”
He also gave him a new five-year restraining order.