WINCHESTER student Eric Coffey could not accept the end of a relationship and so kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and held her against her will for more than two hours.

He had pestered and bombarded Ella Birch with calls and emails after their break-up but then last May took his obsession much further, a court heard.

Coffey, 22, lay in wait for Miss Birch, a fellow student on the choreography and dance course at Winchester University.

As she left her hall of residence to go to a lecture he grabbed her, said Steven Parish, prosecuting.

Mr Parish said: “He had hanged around outside. He followed her, called her name, caught up and put her arm around her.

“He said ‘walk with me’. He said they needed to go to his house so they could talk off campus with no-one else around. She did not go willingly.

“He kept saying sorry, he wouldn’t hurt her and said he had a knife and wanted to hurt himself with it. She was worried she might get hurt stopping him hurting himself and she might get hurt herself.”

Her friends had got worried at her absence and texted her. She replied first saying she was in her room and then at the cathedral but her friends checked.

The court heard that Coffey and Miss Birch were in a relationship from November 2014 until August 2015 before she dumped him because of “his controlling behaviour towards her,” said Mr Parish.

He bombarded her with texts and emails and it got so bad that Miss Birch complained to the police. On May 2 a restraining order was imposed preventing him from any contact. But only ten days later he kidnapped her.

Lesley Manley, mitigating, said Coffey was sorry for the upset he had caused and had embraced Islam whilst on remand in custody.

After the kidnap Coffey went on the run and was not arrested until last October.

Coffey, of Greenwich, south London, admitted kidnap and breach of a restraining order, changing his plea on the day of the trial on March 20 at Winchester Crown Court.

He denied having a bladed article and the plea was accepted with the charge ordered to lie on file.

Sentencing, judge Keith Cutler, the Recorder of Winchester, imposed a two year jail term but suspended for two years. He also ordered Coffey take part in a Building Better Relationships programme and have up to 15 days rehabilitation activity requirement.

He also imposed a new restraining order banning Coffey from any contact with Miss Birch indefinitely.